Influenza

Chapter Seven

Disclaimer: Well, the show's not mine, and neither are the characters.

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"Talk?" she asked, taking in a deep, ragged breath. "About what?"

His look turned reserved, as if he thought he had made a mistake, then let go of her arm. "Uh... I just wanted to say... you, ah, you don't have to take care of me."

From the look on his face she knew that he was lying, but she didn't press the issue. Instead, she smiled lightly, "You took care of me when I was sick, El. Let me return the favor, alright?"

He sighed and leaned against his pillows, "I don't want to ruin your weekend."

She laid her hand on his chest gently, "I didn't have anything planned, anyway. Let me go get you some water, alright?"

Elliot's eyes traveled from hers down to her hand on his chest, then he nodded. With the confirmation she got up from the side of the bed and made her way into the kitchen, grabbed him the last bottle of water that was in the fridge, then restocked it. The Tylenol was sitting on the kitchen table, so she grabbed it, then ventured back into the living room, handing him the Tylenol as she sat back down by him on the bed.

"Thanks," he said, taking the pills. She twisted off the cap to the water, then handed it to him, and he washed the Tylenol down. Leaning heavily against the pillows once more he turned his attention back to her, "You sure you're ok?"

Olivia nodded, "No more fever, no sore muscles, no coughing or sneezing, not even a sore throat. Besides the fact that I am still extremely tired, which is nothing new, I'm fine."

Another sigh escaped his lips as he realized that she was telling him the truth. Had she still been sick he could have tried to switch roles with her, once again nursing her back to health, instead of her helping him with the same thing. Though he wouldn't admit it to her, he hated feeling useless, hated the fact that he needed taking care of, that he couldn't do it alone, even if it was her taking care of him. The fact still remained, he was helpless.

Either he was wearing his emotions on his sleeve, or she was psychic, because the next thing he knew she was giving him a reassuring smile, and resting her hand on his cheek gently. "Everybody gets sick, Elliot... you're not superman, you know?"

He snorted, "I got my flu shot, Liv. I shouldn't have caught it."

So that was what was bothering him? she mused. He was upset about actually getting sick. "Elliot," she told him, smiling with amusement, "a lot of people who got their shots have been getting sick. There was something wrong with them this year, you know that, it's been all over the news."

Well, yeah. He knew that. The knowledge didn't make him feel any better, though. With a shrug as his only reply he slid down lower in the bed, shutting his eyes with a tired sigh. "I'm gonna sleep some more..."

She lowered her hand from his cheek back to his chest and nodded, even though his eyes were still shut. "Good... that's good."

"You should get some rest, too," he told her sleepily. Hadn't she admitted that she was extremely tired? Sleep wasn't only something needed to nurture you back to health, anyway. If he was going to be out, there was no reason she shouldn't.

"That sounds like a good idea," she told him, moving her hand from his chest to his forehead, and frowning because of the warmth she felt.

He mumbled something incoherently, causing Olivia to lean forward, closer to his mouth.

"What?" she nearly whispered.

"We'll talk more... when I wake up," he replied more clearly, although the exhaustion in his voice was clearly detectable.

"About what?" she asked, but it was too late. He was already asleep.

With a confused look that nobody could see, she got up from her spot on the couch bed, and walked around to the other side, where she slid under the covers, but made sure to stay at enough distance from him that neither would be tempted to cuddle. And, with enough examples from the past couple of days, she knew that given the chance, both would have.

When she had said she was extremely exhausted she hadn't been lying, and thus was proven by the fact that she had only been lying in bed for no more than three minutes before her breathing evened out, and she was asleep.

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He woke up before she did, for once. After a quick glance at the clock he decided that he hadn't been sleeping long enough, and neither had she, so getting up wasn't an option. Going back to sleep, however, seemed about as good as anything else he could have come up with.

It was cold, though, and he could feel the chill of early November through the thick blankets covering him. It was going to be a long, harsh winter, according to the news, and it was starting early. He shivered, although he wasn't sure if it was from the cold outside, or his illness, and tried to pull the covers tighter around him. That wasn't going to happen, however, because she had them wrapped around her body in a way that couldn't be undone. He sighed, because there was only one other thing for him to do, something he was a bit hesitant about.

Shared body heat would be the only way to warm him up, short of waking her, and he wasn't going to do that. She was tired, and needed all the sleep she could get. He wasn't going to let his own selfishness get in the way of that. But, even though he didn't like it, he did have the flu, and the last thing he needed was to be cold, it would only slow down his recovery. So, he reached out for her, surprised by the large distance between them, and gently pulled her close.

She stirred at the touch, but didn't rouse, thankfully. When she was close enough to provide him with some of her body heat he stopped pulling her, deciding that the more space between the two of them the better, and settled into sleep once more. What he hadn't been expecting, however, was that in her unconscious state she would react to being so close to a warm body, and before he knew it she was cuddled up against him, her face hiding in his chest.

Well, wasn't this a pleasant surprise, he decided, as a sigh of content escaped her lips, muffled by her close proximity to his body. A pleasant surprise that had occurred way too many times in the past few days, as far as he was concerned. Not that it wasn't pleasant, far from it. However, it wasn't right. He was still married, she was still his partner, and she still had her rules, no matter how stupid he thought them to be.

Sticking to his earlier assessment, that she was still too tired to wake, he closed his eyes and allowed his own sleepiness to take priority. It wasn't long before he, too, was asleep, and in his unconscious state, wrapping his arms around her tightly, pulling her as close to him as possible. Maybe he knew it wasn't right, but his mind sure didn't seem to think so.

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She woke feeling surprisingly refreshed, and smothered. It didn't take her long to figure out why she felt so, because his arms tightened around her instinctively, and he sighed into her hair. Geeze, couldn't she get a break? Hadn't she kept a gap between the two of them when she had fallen asleep? Why then, the closeness now?

Her sight was limited, since her face was still hidden in his shirt, and it wasn't going to change much as long as he was asleep. So, she had two options, stay like that and allow him more rest, or wake him up and face the awkward situation.

In the end, she didn't have to pick between the two, he did it for her. By waking up on his own. She knew as much because his arms loosened their hold on her, and he pulled back a bit. With her new found freedom she looked up at him sheepishly, wondering if she had been the one to scoot closer to him while she was sleeping, or if he had pulled her closer himself. When she didn't see confusion in his eyes she came to the conclusion that it had been him to pull her close, instead of the other way around.

"Good afternoon..." she told him.

He nodded. Good afternoon, indeed. If only he could wake up like that all the time.

"You feel any better?"

Elliot snorted, no, he didn't. He still felt like crap, and didn't think that was going to change much. However, until she had asked him, he hadn't really been focused on that.

She grinned despite herself. He looked extremely good looking when he just woke up, sick or otherwise. "I didn't think so." Olivia began to pull out of his embrace, only to realize that his arms were still wrapped around her, now tighter than they had been before. She looked up at him, confusion dancing in her eyes.

"We need to talk..."

Well, wasn't that familiar? "About?"

He gave their current position a once-over, then looked back up at her. "This," he stated simply, giving no further explanation.

Not that she would have needed one anyway. "What about it?"

His normally bright, blue eyes were dark, but not in a threatening way, and she couldn't decide if that was a good thing, or a bad thing.

"Is it just because one of us is sick... or something else?"

She shivered at the implication, which he noticed immediately, and smiled because of it, causing all her insides to turn to goo. How was she supposed to answer that? Was there even a right answer? Did she even know?

His smile turned into a grin, an incredibly sexy grin, and she felt a chill run down her spine. God, what was he doing to her? How was he doing it? The only thing the man had done was smile, for Pete's sake! How on earth was that having such an effect on her?

"Answer anytime you'd like..." he told her, running a hand through her short hair, although this time it wasn't to sooth her. She felt herself melting under his intense gaze, but for the life of her couldn't manage to form a sentence in her mind. It was like her brain had shut itself down. Wasn't that funny? One look from a good looking man and her brain off and quits on her.

"I... uh," she managed before her voice broke. Forcing back a snort she went over an explanation in her mind. God, it was one sentence... this wasn't rocket science. "I don't know," she finally spat out, her eyes downcast, looking anywhere but his face, or more specific, his eyes.

"You don't know," he questioned, "or you don't want to know."

The implication caused a swell of bravery in her, and she forced herself to look at him. Ok, glare was a better term, but it was a look nonetheless. "I haven't thought about it," she told him, her independence kicking in at full force. "Have you?"

He grinned, despite himself. Of course he had... not. Hey, he had just woken up. The initial question had been a surprise to even him, why should he have to answer his own thoughts?

"I..." he started, ready to come back with an intelligent retort. Nothing came to mind, so he decided to stick with the truth. "No... not really."

Her eyes narrowed on him, "Then what are we doing here?"

Well, wasn't that a good question? He wished he had an answer for it.

"I don't know," he told her simply. The truth seemed to be working so far (at least for the most part) so he decided to continue down that path. "But, I'm trying to figure that out."

"Well," she told him, trying to pull out of his grasp once more, failing miserably. "Could you please let me know when you do?"

He grinned, "I'll do you one better."

"Oh, yeah?" she questioned. "How?"

The grin on his face spread, forming into a full fledged smile. That had been the question he was hoping for, because it allowed him to test out his theory.

Her only warning of what was to come was his hands moving from around her waist, to one cupping her cheek, and the other tangling in her hair. Which, that should have tipped her off big time, but she had been to distracted by his earlier questions for it to register in her mind exactly what he had planned, and before she knew it, his lips were pressed firmly against her own.

If she had thought that a simple smile from him was enough to through her off kilter, then a kiss completely knocked her off course, and she found herself throwing all her rules out the window and melting into the embrace. Her arms came around his neck without her even realizing it, and she pulled him closer, deepening the kiss, despite everything the logical side of her mind was screaming at her.

Hell, this was as good a way to find the answer to his questions as any. And, she definitely wasn't going to complain, or stop him. If this is what he needed to do, then that was fine with her.

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A/N: Hehe, I fooled you guys into thinking the important stuff would be at the beginning of the chapter... not the end :)
Ah... cliffhangers are so great.