Chapter 3

"Here, Cole," Mel said, handing him a little plastic cup of Nyquil. It had been a long and unpleasant day for the Tracker and, stoic though he had tried to be, the pain in his head had finally become unbearable. "This should make you feel better. Careful when you drink it. It's… strong."

Cole nodded and sipped at the green fluid, grimacing. "Mel, that tastes like… terlwak," he announced, frowning and swallowing the rest down as quickly as possible.

"I know it does, Cole," Mel said, nodding. "But it'll help with the muscle aches."

He nodded, faintly, handing back the cup and staring up at her curiously. "How do you know what terlwak tastes like, Mel?"

"Uh, I assumed it was a figure of speech for tasting like… well, nasty," she temporized.

"Oh." Cole nodded. "Well, terlwak does take nasty," he agreed absently.

Mel sat down next to him, watching him anxiously. "How do you feel?"

"I ache and my head hurts. And I itch," he added, sighing.

"Poor baby," Mel said softly. "Tired?"

"Yes, Mel." He nodded faintly.

"Why don't you go lie down in my room for a few hours?" she suggested. "I can wake you around dinner time."

"What will you do, Mel?"

"I'll just curl up on the couch and read a book," she told him, rising and extending her hand. "Come on, Cole."

"Okay, Mel," he agreed, accepting her hand and rising. "Thank you for letting me borrow your bed."

"You look like you could use it," Mel told him, opening the door to her bedroom. "There are more blankets in the closet if you need them. Can I bring you a cup of tea or anything?"

"Yes please, Mel." He smiled down at her. "Thank you."

She smiled and nodded. "I'll go get your tea if you want to lay down."

While Mel was gone, Cole quickly pulled off his pants and shirt, both of which were horribly uncomfortable against his itchy skin, and slid under the covers as another bout of chills hit him. Shivering, he lay huddled under the blankets, waiting for Mel.

"Cold?" she asked sympathetically, sitting on the edge of the bed and handing him his tea. As he sipped it, she rose and folded his clothes, laying them on the dresser. "Let me see if I can find a couple of heating pads," she said. "Oh, better still, I think I have an electric blanket around here somewhere. Stay put."

Cole obediently waited as Mel hurried off, returning a few minutes later with a blanket in hand.

"Found it," she announced, holding it up. "Here, let's just plug it in and…" She paused as she bent to plug the blanket in. "There we go. Now just pull down the covers and we'll put this right next to your skin. They don't normally recommend that for humans, but I doubt it could hurt you."

"I don't think so, Mel," Cole agreed, pushing down the blankets and letting Mel drape the electric blanket over him. He smiled at the additional warmth he could already feel it generating. "That's nice, Mel. Feels good."

"I'm glad you think so," she said, pulling the other covers up again and tucking him in. "Are you going to be okay alone or do you want me to sit up with you?"

"No, Mel. You should rest as well."

"Okay," she said quietly, switching off the bedside lamp. "I'll be in the living room. You call if you need anything at all."

"Okay, Mel. You call, too, if you need anything."

"Okay, Cole." Mel smiled gently down at him, brushing his hair out of his face. "You sleep well."

"Yes, Mel. I'll try to."

Mel nodded and rose, giving his shoulder a pat and then leaving the bedroom. Sighing deeply and more tired than she would have thought possible this time last year, she grabbed a comforter and dropped onto the couch, yawning and curling up.

***

Forty-five sleepless minutes later, Mel had almost given up on the idea of a nap. Tossing and turning on the couch only seemed to have left her more exhausted. Shaking her head in disgust, she rose and walked to the bedroom to check on Cole.

Unlike Mel, Cole had obviously had no trouble at all getting to sleep. He was huddled under the pile of blankets, curled in a tight ball and shivering, but he sound asleep. She could not help but smile at his innocent little-boy expression. Most of the time, he looked like a human male in his late thirties or early forties. There were times when the weight of the universe on his shoulders made him appear infinitely older to her, almost ancient. And then there were times like these, when he seemed infinitely younger. It had less to do with any actual change in his appearance and everything to do with his manner and the way he carried himself.

As physically exhausted as the meningitis had left her, there were times when his responsibilities had him every bit as exhausted emotionally. Now, though, with his troubles temporarily on-hold, clearly not penetrating into his sleeping mind, he looked absolutely beautiful and at peace. Smiling, she sat down next to him and brushed his hair out of his face. Cole smiled and mumbled in his sleep, nuzzling his face into her hand. She could not resist letting her hand linger there for another moment longer, her fingertips lightly playing across his cheek and forehead. In the past several weeks, she had really grown to enjoy little acts of closeness between them, even just the stolen touches and furtive glances. Especially those fevered touches, that soothing heat that poured off of him and that he always seemed more than wiling to share with her.

His skin, now, though, was too cold. Actually cold instead of just less warm than usual. Skin that always radiated heat seemed to be sucking it in, struggling to maintain a working minimum temperature. And failing. The contentment of being close to Cole, the joy of touching him, gave way to concern and anxiety. As far as they had come together in the past months, she could not lose him like this, would not.

"Cole," she whispered, shaking him gently. "Come on, Cole. Wake up."

"Mel?" he whispered, opening his eyes and staring up at her. "I'm cold, Mel…"

"I know you are, baby," she whispered, sliding to her knees next to the bed. "Don't worry. We'll get you warm again," she promised. Taking a deep breath, she pulled off her shirt.

Cole watched her with glazed eyes, uncomprehending. "Mel?"

"It's okay, Cole. It's a human way of conserving body-heat," she explained, rising and stripping off her pants. "We need to get you warm again, I think."

"I think so, Mel," he murmured, closing his eyes again. "Why... why so cold, Mel?"

"You, your Cirronian physiology," she murmured, sliding under the covers next to him. "Your temperature goes down. It's too low."

"Too low, Mel," he agreed quietly. "The infection… Too fast, Mel. Viruses... dangerous."

"I know, Cole," she whispered, wrapping her arms around him and tugging him close to her. "But you're going to be okay. I'm going to take care of you."

"Take care of each other," he mumbled, closing his eyes and wrapping his arms around her.

"What should I do?" she asked, rubbing his arms and back briskly as she would have with a human, trying to bring up his core temperature, not sure what else to do. "How can I help?"

"This helps," he assured her in an unnervingly weak voice. "Feel warmer."

"Okay." She nodded faintly and kept rubbing. "Just try to rest. We'll get your temperature back up."

"Okay, Mel," he agreed, nuzzling his face into her shoulder and then laying still in her arms.

"You stay with me, Cole," she whispered. "I mean it."

"Stay with you," came the whispered response, strangely firm given how weak his voice was. "Forever. Kal'tra ka, Taushi."

Mel's eyes widened faintly. "Cole, I didn't understand one word of that."

"Pehtah, Cirrian."

"You're speaking Cirronian, aren't you?" she whispered, staring at him with wide eyes. "Cole, I don't understand one word of Cirronian…" She frowned. "Why are you speaking Cirronian? Oh, God, you're delirious, aren't you?"

He regarded her blankly. Shuddering once and snuggling in to her arms again, he closed his eyes and lay still.

"No, Cole. Wake up," she muttered, shaking him. Humans got delirious from high fevers, because the fever was damaging their brains. Maybe Cole's low temperature was doing the same, slowly killing him and not a thing she could do about it. She had probably even compounded the problem by giving him a double-shot of aspirin-bearing Nyquil. "Come on! I need you to stay with me. Please, just stay…" she pled. "Come on, Cole," she whispered, her voice breaking. "I need you. Stay with me, okay?"

"Sh… shtay?" he mumbled thickly.

"Yes!" Mel agreed, nodding quickly. "Yes, Cole. Stay. Stay."

"Shtay," he agreed, nodding weakly and shrugging out of her grasp. Grabbing a quilt, he stumbled from the room, about as coordinated as he had been the first time she had laid eyes on him.

"Cole?" Mel asked, grabbing a robe. She heard what sounded suspiciously like the end-table in the hallway being knocked over and quickly followed him, shrugging into her robe as she went. Sure enough, the table was on its side and the vase it had borne lay shattered nearby.

She caught up with him in the kitchen. He was naked except for his boxers, glowing in large patches, clutching the blanket wrapped around his shoulders with one hand like a cape, and looked around thoughtfully.

"Cole, what are you doing?" she asked, frowning. Under any other circumstance, the sight would have been laughable. In the current circumstances, it was only frightening, especially given that glazed, far away look in his eyes. "Cole? Are you okay?"

"Sh… shtay," he announced, opening the cabinet and pulling down a bottle of maple syrup.

Mel stared with wide eyes as the Cirronian, now blanketless, leaned against the counter, unscrewed the lid, and began drinking the maple syrup. Shaking her head, she bent to retrieve the blanket, draping it over his shoulders again.

"Is that what this is, Cole? Shtay? Is that the Cirronian word for... Syrup? Sweet?" she asked, reaching for the bottle.

Cole let out a loud yell and pulled the bottle from her reach, guzzling the contents and glaring at her.

"I wasn't going to take it," she told him gently. "I was just wondering. Look, why don't you take that back into the bedroom. You're going to get cold out here."

Cole frowned suspiciously at her, but let her steer him into the bedroom anyway, clutching the bottle tightly.

"It's okay, Cole," she assured him, pushing him onto the bed and wrapping the electric blanket around him again. "You're going to be okay," she promised. "I'll take care of you. Just… enjoy..."

She shivered, unable to imagine ever having swallowed even half that much of the strongly-flavored syrup in one sitting. Or, for that matter, in one month... She was not entirely sure it was healthy, but was not sure if she could really stop him, either. He was off in his own world, only peripherally aware of her, and he had reacted almost violently when she had gotten too close to the bottle. She doubted he even knew who she was at this point, and she did not want to risk an altercation with a delirious, out-of-it Cirronian. Especially when, for all she knew, the sugar in the syrup was good for him. The way he was constantly guzzling ice-cream and candy and pouring massive quantities of sugar into his coffee, it was entirely possible.

Before Mel's eyes, Cole managed to empty the bottle, even wetting his fingers to retrieve a few stray drops around the rim. He regarded the empty bottle wistfully, then looked at Mel.

"Nueh? Shtay me'a nueh?" he asked hopefully.

She did not have to know Cirronian to be able to judge that expression. He wanted more. Mel blinked faintly, but since he actually did seem a little more coherent, she did not argue. Maybe the sugar was doing him some good.

"Yeah, I think we have more," she muttered, rising and hurrying into the kitchen. She cursed when she could not find another bottle of syrup in the cabinet. After a few minutes of searching, she found a bottle of corn-syrup. It was just going to have to be good enough, she decided.

Cole smiled happily as she entered the room with it, dropping the empty bottle and grabbing the corn-syrup from Mel instead.

"You're going to give yourself a stomachache," Mel told him, frowning as he opened the bottle and started to chug the contents. "Maybe you should slow down?"

Cole ignored her.

"Cole?" Mel asked, frowning. "Damn it, Cole, can you understand me?" she demanded, her voice rising with her emotions.

Frowning, he put the bottle down and rose, approaching Mel. When she took an involuntary step backwards, he simply took another one towards her.

"Cole, you're scaring me just a little here," she whispered, backing away a little more. Her eyes widened as she realized that she had just backed herself into a corner.

"Ay-ay, Taushi," he whispered, moving to stand in front of her. He regarded her searchingly, frowning sadly. "Mel, Taushi, ay-ay. Ay-ay… Ah ette. Ni kal etten, Mel. Hwa'annin…" Sighing, he reached up with both hands and began caressing her throat.

Mel stared up at him with wide eyes, gradually relaxing as she realized that he was trying in his own way to comfort her, to tell her not to be afraid. In spite of the odd behaviors his delerium had driven him to, he was still her Cole, still her loving, concerned Cirronian roommate.

"I'm just… I'm worried about you," she whispered.

"Ah ette, Melah en'i i…" he breathed, his expression tender.

When he leaned towards her, her first thought was that he was about to kiss her. She would not have stopped him, either, she realized, startled by that as well. She was so startled by her own willingness to kiss him if that was what he wanted that she nearly failed to realize that he was, in fact, in the process of passing out. With a startled cry, she caught him by the arms, trying to keep him from falling. As heavy as he was and as weak as she was, she only managed to land on the bottom of the pile. The Cirronian followed closely, knocking the wind out of her as his bulk wedged her firmly against the floor.

"Cole, are you conscious?" she managed when she had caught her breath again. No answer. "Great," she sighed, rolling him off of her and quickly feeling for a pulse.

She breathed a sigh of relief to feel his pulse strong. His skin was still cold to the touch, though. Sighing and nodding to herself, she set about trying to haul him into the bed. Fifteen minutes later, she had to acknowledge that it was a losing battle. Shaking her head in disgust at her own weakness, she just stripped the blankets off of the bed and draped them over Cole where he lay on the floor, sliding a pillow under his head and nudging him into a comfortable position before climbing under the blankets next to him.

"Don't scare me like that," she murmured, tears in her eyes. "Damn it, Cole, don't you ever scare me like that again!" she shouted, feeling half-hysterical. She had actually almost lost him. The thought of life without him left her feeling like a piece of her heart had been ripped out.

"Taushi," the unconscious man mumbled, wrapping his arms around her in his sleep. "Ta thalla enicé hwa. Hwa ni ette, ni kal. Ni hwa tel, ni kal. Hwa'annin…"

"Yeah," she sighed, nodding weakly. "Whatever, Cole. Sweet dreams, big guy."

***

Cole came awake to the awareness of a splitting headache and a hard bed. And… a woman in his arms? He opened his eyes hesitantly, glancing around. Why was he lying on the floor? That consideration was immediately replaced by another, though. Not only was he lying on the floor, he was doing so with Mel in his arms. Not that he was complaining… on the contrary, he was actually enjoying himself quite a bit, in spite of his headache, sore muscles, fatigue, and general discomfort.

Reluctant to relinquish his hold on Mel, he simply tightened his grip on the sleeping woman. She mumbled in her sleep and snuggled more firmly into his chest. Which was when the Cirronian realized that she was wearing almost as little as he was. Her discarded robe lay nearby, and her clothes were sitting on the dresser near his, leaving nothing to her but her bra and underwear. He smiled faintly at this awareness and stole a cautious glance under the blankets. From what he could see, the white cotton undergarments looked a lot more appealing on Mel than they did in the hamper, he decided, dropping the blanket again and closing his eyes.

The disorientation of sleep started to clear from his brain, leaving him wondering what had happened to lead to him finding himself in a pose like this with Mel. Certainly the shy, modest woman must have had a good reason for taking her clothes off and getting under the blankets with him, but he honestly could not remember.

She had brought him to her room to take a nap and then left him: he remembered that. Obviously more had gone on since, though. A glance over his shoulder at the clock told him that it was three. The fact that there was not even a little light filtering through the windows told him that it was three in the morning. The fact that he was still exhausted told him that his sleep, while prolonged, had not been restful. Sighing deeply, he rose, lifting the blankets and Mel into his arms and transferring them onto the bed. Smiling adoringly down at the sleeping woman, he straightened the blankets around her and shifted her into a more comfortable position..

After a moment's internal debate, he slid under the blankets again, moving next to Mel. After all, if she had climbed under the blankets with him in the first place, he reasoned, she could not possibly object to him doing the same a few hours later. Besides which, he was still painfully cold, and Mel's proximity seemed to help. He slid his arms around her again, smiling when she rolled onto her side and snuggled against him. Being sick may have been hellish, but this particular aspect of it was lovely indeed. Smiling, he closed his eyes and quickly fell back into a deep sleep.

His dreams, when they came, were of the amazing creature in his arms, of perhaps some day being allowed to hold her like this when he was not sick.

***

The light's wrong.

Mel knew that even before she opened her eyes. Used to getting up by seven or eight in the morning, she knew exactly where the light should be and how intensely it should be making itself known through still-closed eyelids. This light was from much later in the day, leading her to wonder how much she had overslept and why Cole had let her.

As wakefulness began to intrude more firmly, she stopped worrying about oversleeping. Who, in fact, gave a damn about malfunctioning alarm clocks when she was in the arms of such a very well-put-together man? Certainly no young woman in her right mind. Except that…

"Cole…" she whispered in alarm, cautiously opening one eye. What the hell was she doing in bed with Cole?

"Good morning, Mel," he answered languidly, not seeming even a little concerned by their respective positions.

Mel decided to take her cues from him. "Good morning, Cole," she began cautiously. Which was when memories of the past night hit her. Gasping, she sat up, one hand immediately finding Cole's forehead. "Oh, my God, Cole! Are you okay?" she demanded, her hands cupping his face and her eyes searching his anxiously.

His skin was still cold, still greedily sucking up her own body's warmth, but no longer the deathly cold it had been the night before. She breathed a sigh of relief and flopped back onto her pillows. She immediately wished she had not when Cole propped himself up on one arm, leaning over her.

"I'm fine, Mel. I still feel quite poorly, but I'm fine." He smiled down at her, reaching for her throat. "What was I doing on the floor last night, Mel?"

"You don't remember?"

"No, Mel. I remember going to sleep on the bed, then finding myself on the floor with you. What was I doing on the floor?"

"Speaking an awful lot of Cirronian…"

"Was I speaking Cirronian? I don't remember, Mel," he told her, his expression confused.

"I think you were delirious. You were so cold, and you seemed really out of it."

He frowned faintly. "I might have been speaking Cirronian," he admitted. "But I don't remember."

"Do you remember drinking two bottles of syrup?"

Cole frowned down at her, shaking his head. "That's a lot of syrup, Mel," he noted.

"Uh, yeah." Mel nodded faintly, smiling uncertainly up at him. "You were going on about… shteh? Shtah?"

Cole considered for a moment. "Shtay, Mel? Sugar?"

"Yeah."

"I must have been very weak," he decided.

"Yeah. So I gathered when you collapsed on top of me. Are you okay, Cole?"

"I am now. Last night… I honestly don't know, Mel." He paused, frowning. "I collapsed on you?" he asked abruptly, frowning. "Mel, are you okay? Were you hurt?" he asked quickly, his hands finding her throat and his eyes making a quick sweep of her scantily-clad body.

Mel smiled faintly and shook her head. "No, Cole. I wasn't hurt. Just very worried about you. You kept going on and on in Cirronian. I think it was Cirronian," she amended. "I was..." Trailing off, she sat up, shaking her head and biting her lower lip against the tears that threatened. "I was... so worried," she whispered.

When her tears refused to be denied further, Cole simply gathered her into his arms and held her close while she sobbed. Feeling her obvious, intense distress, he could not even enjoy holding her close very much. His own tears mingled with her own after a few minutes as he came to understand exactly how afraid of losing him she had been.

After her own illness, it was a fear that he could readily sympathize with.