Note: I know the sexual tension is crazy here, and I promise all of this leads up somewhere; it's not just me being mean to you guys and Jason, although you're free to call me evil if you like anyway.
Chapter 12
"Here comes the choo-choo train! Choo-choo! Choo-choo!"
Jason eyed the spoonful of chicken noodle soup Elizabeth held with blatant disgust. "You really hate me, don't you?"
The brunette grinned cheekily at him, her blue eyes sparkling with laughter. "Choo-choo-"
"You do that one more time and I'll-"
"You'll what, Morgan?" she challenged, wiggling her eyebrows at him. He watched her tilt her head cockily when he offered no reply. "That's what I thought. Now eat your soup before I make more choo-choo noises."
"I can't," he moaned, throwing one arm over his eyes. "I can't eat any more."
Elizabeth frowned, dropping the spoon back in the bowl and setting it on the nightstand. "Jason, it's your lunch. You have to eat something-"
"I'm sick of soup. That's all you've given me since last night."
"Soup is the best thing when you have a fever," she informed him, reaching for the thermometer. "How do you expect to get better when you won't do what I tell you? Open your mouth."
He complied and pouted up at her as she shoved the thermometer in his mouth. The brunette was dressed in a short miniskirt that barely poked out from under the Kelly's apron she wore, and she had shoved the long sleeves of her pink-and-violet striped oxford shirt up to her elbows. She was currently on her lunch break and instead of taking that time to eat and decompress from the crazy breakfast hours, she was up in his room trying to take care of him. And as guilty as he felt about being such a burden, it still wasn't enough to make him want to finish his soup.
She sighed at the thermometer reading and put it back in its slim case. "You've still got a temperature, but the good news is that it's not as bad as it was this morning."
He gulped and winced as his throat burned, still stubborn in his anti-soup stance. "Elizabeth, go eat something – you don't need to be up here."
"I had a doughnut for breakfast," she informed him as she wrung out another wet towel to make a cold compress. "Don't worry about me – I'm good. That doughnut can carry me through to dinner if need be."
He scowled at that – the woman had absolutely no clue about how important it was to take care of her body. And what a body. Shaking his head briskly to clear any X-rated thoughts that still remained, Jason reached for her wrist. "Elizabeth, you weigh ten god damn ounces. Go eat something. Get out of here."
The brunette's lips pursed into a thin line as she cocked her head at him and glanced at the delicate black watch she wore. "Tell you what – fine. I'll go downstairs and make a sandwich but I'm coming right back up here. Do you want something? Water? Juice?"
"How 'bout some real food?" he groused, trying to be discreet in his attempts to look up her poor excuse of a skirt when she stood.
"Not without finishing your soup," she smirked, fiddling with the strings of her apron. "Come on, Morgan, be a good boy and finish your soup and I'll buy you a toy. You want a toy, right?"
He glared at her as she backed up, still chuckling, and left the room. That girl was going to be the death of him. She had stayed late with him the night before, focused singularly on her quest to drive his fever down. He wasn't sure how productive the whole endeavor had been – just being near her made the temperature in the room shoot up a couple degrees as far as he was concerned. But she had stayed with him regardless, continuously arranging his cold compress and wiping away his sweat. His fever had been dangerously high – so high in fact that Elizabeth had almost called the hospital. But under her ministrations, it had gone down in the early hours of the morning.
He had tried relentlessly, even going so far as to beg her outright, to get her to retire to her own room and get some sleep. And even though she had to open up the following morning, Elizabeth refused to leave. When his fever had finally fallen a bit, he managed to convince her to get some sleep. She had staggered to her own bedroom like a zombie, and had somehow gotten up for work in a few hours.
And she had been working all morning downstairs, and now she was choosing to spend her lunch break in his temporary bedroom. His pants were slung over a chair, his t-shirt folded on a chair, and his wallet and keys sat on the dresser. And, he noticed with a faint sense of satisfaction, her personal effects were also strewn about the room. Her sweater from the night before was lying on top of his pants, her pink Miss Piggy socks were balled up and stuffed in his motorcycle boots, and she had even left her sparkly crimson cell phone next to his wallet. To the casual observer, it would appear that the two of them shared the little room above the quaint diner.
"Here we go," Elizabeth chirped, coming into the room with some sort of hastily-assembled sandwich and a glass of water. "I think you should take some medicine now, Jason – those headaches of yours aren't going away."
He let her pop a couple pills into his mouth and then he braced himself wearily up on his elbows. She used one hand to cup the back of his neck, holding his head steady, and held the glass to his lips with the other. When he had swallowed the medicine, she gently lowered him back down and settled onto his bed herself, reaching for her sandwich.
Jason eyed her peanut butter and jelly sandwich with barely concealed disdain. "That's not lunch."
"Yes, it is," she frowned defensively, taking a big bite out of it just to spite it and getting a little peanut butter on the corner of her mouth. "It's a perfectly good lunch."
"It's a snack," he corrected. "You're taking advantage of the fact that I can't move – I'd never let you eat that for lunch. And you've got a little on your face there," he added, deftly reaching one hand up to point it out. She stopped chewing as his thumb swiped at the spot of peanut butter and before Jason could blink, her little pink tongue came out to lick it clean. The brunette kept eating as if nothing had happened, completely oblivious to Jason's shock, and the feverish mechanic wondered if anything he did would ever render him attractive to the completely unaffected little woman.
"Okay, I have to get back to work in about five minutes," she got out around a mouthful of bread and peanut butter. "But if you need anything, I'll grab my cell and you can just call me, okay? Don't even think of coming downstairs, Morgan. Besides the fact that you're totally naked, you're also dizzy. I can't have you falling all over the place."
"I'm not naked," he groused. "I'm wearing my boxers."
She shrugged as if it was inconsequential, but in all honesty she was very aware of the fact. It was so strange to be seated atop Jason Morgan's bed, of all places, and knowing that the man was only clad in his Calvins underneath the tan blanket. "Whatever. Just don't come downstairs, okay? Call me if you need anything and I'll be right up."
He nodded dutifully as she finished off her excuse for a lunch, and then Elizabeth busied herself in wetting his cold compress once more and fixing his blankets around his bare chest. Finished, she tucked her hair behind her ear and pressed a smacking kiss to his forehead and was out the door before Jason even had time to form a coherent thought.
She was refilling soda glasses for a group of high school kids stopping by for an after-school snack of chili cheese fries when her phone rang. Finishing up quickly, Elizabeth deposited the drinks on the table and was able to answer her phone on the third ring.
"Yeah?" She knew exactly who it was from the name on her caller ID display. "What do you need?"
"Um, I don't have any more water…""I'll be right there." Making sure that all her customers were satisfied for the moment and that she wouldn't be missed if she ducked out for two minutes, Elizabeth poured some cool water into a clean glass and quickly ran up the stairs.
Jason was awake – barely – and lying in bed looking horribly uncomfortable. Elizabeth shut the door softly behind her and walked up to his bed slowly, frowning at how flushed he appeared to be. His startlingly blue eyes – hazy and a bit unfocused – met hers and the brunette knelt down next to him. Slipping one hand under his neck, she helped him sit up as she had done before and held the water to his lips. He was burning under her palm and sweating again, and Elizabeth watched worriedly as he gulped down the cool water.
He was almost finished with the water and she was about to take his temperature again when a harsh knock sounded on the wooden door before it was thrown open, and a wide-eyed Bobbie practically hurtled herself into the room. Her green eyes widened when she saw Elizabeth leaning across her partially naked nephew who was half-sitting up in bed, and for a moment the veteran doctor couldn't speak.
Elizabeth was the first to open her mouth, and the flushed brunette managed to stammer out a greeting. "Bobbie…hi." Well, this was wonderful – her boss coming to the diner to see her practically sprawled out across Jason's very bare chest. Absolutely wonderful.
"What's going on?" the older woman got out, recovering from her surprise and quickly making her way to the bed. "I just got off call and came to get some food before going home to sleep, and Penny told me that Jason was sick and-"
"He's got a bit of a fever," Elizabeth nodded as Jason slipped back down onto the pillows again. Her soft palm lingered on his stubbled cheek as Bobbie sat down next to her.
"Since when?"
Elizabeth bit her lip as the doctor reached for the thermometer on the nightstand. "Um…last night."
"Why didn't you call me?"
"You were on call," she replied defensively. "I knew that, and so I didn't bother. You wouldn't have been able to come anyway."
Bobbie nodded, having momentarily forgotten that, and coaxed Jason to open his mouth so she could slide the thermometer in. Her nephew felt absolutely ridiculous as the two women continued to chatter over him – it was downright humiliating. Not only was he half-naked in bed and unable to move, but his mother-hen of an aunt was fussing over him while the coworker he was secretly lusting after watched. Absolutely ridiculous.
"It's still high," Bobbie murmured, pulling out the thermometer. "What have you been doing?"
Elizabeth blushed slightly and fiddled with the blanket. "Um, I made sure he got plenty of liquids, I checked his temperature every hour, I made him a compress of sorts, I fed him soup-"
"And he's been resting, right?" Bobbie interrupted, tenderly brushing her nephew's blonde hair back and ignoring the way he groaned. "He needs to rest if he wants to get better."
"He slept almost the entire morning," Elizabeth replied. "And I've been coming up every so often to check up on him."
Bobbie was nodding slowly. "There's not much I can do – it's a normal fever-cold combination, and we have to let it run its course."
"Exactly," Elizabeth agreed, standing up and taking the older woman by the elbows. "And that's why you need to get your lunch and go home to get some rest. You've been up all night, Bobbie, and you're not going to be doing Jason any favors if you fall asleep on your feet. Come on."
"Are you sure?" the redhead fretted, glancing worriedly at her half-asleep nephew. "I could-"
"You can go home and rest," Elizabeth interrupted, wrapping an arm reassuringly around her waist and leading her to the door. "Just like you told Jason to. Don't worry, Bobbie – I'll take good care of him. I promise."
That seemed to ease the older woman's conscience a bit, and she smiled nervously at Elizabeth. "All right, honey, okay. You've done a wonderful job – thank you for everything. Jason's so lucky to have a good friend like you." She knew better than to expect an outright denial of that, but Elizabeth's little blush told the kind-hearted doctor all she needed to know about the state of her nephew's relationship with the petite waitress. With a nod and a small, smug smile, Bobbie patted Elizabeth's hand and descended the steps to the diner, leaving the brunette to wonder if her feelings for her co-worker were really that transparent. Perhaps they were – to everyone but Jason, and that was all that mattered.
The daylight had already departed and dusk had set in when Jason awoke in his bed. His head was much clearer and it felt as if his fever had gone down, and he couldn't have been happier. He wouldn't have to burden Elizabeth anymore with his frustrating inability to take care of himself, and he could actually get back into his normal rhythm now.
He was just pondering that when there was a soft knock on his door. A second later, the doorknob turned quietly and the door opened slowly. Jason's eyes were glued to the opening and he was rewarded when Elizabeth stepped into view. But when the mechanic saw what his petite co-worker was wearing this evening, he wasn't too sure about the rewarded part – tortured seemed to be a better way to put it.
The brunette beauty was barefoot and her lovely face was free of all makeup. Her hair was open and cascaded down to just past those creamy shoulders in soft waves of chocolate silk, but it was her choice in apparel that nearly sent him into cardiac arrest. Instead of the pajama bottoms and full-sleeved shirt he had seen her wear to bed the previous night, she wore a flimsy pale pink silk nightie with spaghetti straps that fell to several inches above her knee.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, her toenails were painted a very enticing shade of bubblegum pink.
Jason couldn't help the groan that escaped his lips when she stepped into the dim light of his room, the golden rays bouncing off her sheer nightgown and causing the pink silk to have an almost illuminating effect. Her lips curved into a sinister smile as she rolled forward smoothly, not the least bit fazed by his hungry eyes.
"How are you feeling, Tiger?"
He swallowed roughly, devouring her with his intense eyes. "B-Better."
"That's good," she purred, easing slowly up until the fronts of her thighs brushed against the edge of the bed, mere inches from his fingers. "You're back to your normal self. Good to hear."
"What-" His voice was thick and rough, as rough as sandpaper. "What are you doing here?"
She lifted one shoulder to shrug, causing one strap to slip down her arm and give him a very appealing view of the upper swell of her firm breast. "I just came to check up on my favorite patient."
He didn't miss the sultry, flirtatious note in her voice and his body throbbed in response. "You know, I think I still might have a bit of a fever."
He was baiting her and they both knew it. Fortunately for him, Lizzie Webber always bit. With unmistakable seductive intent gleaming in those unearthly sapphire orbs, she lifted her nightie higher still and crawled onto the bed. "I'd better check, then."
In one smooth motion, she tugged at the blankets and pulled them entirely off his body, revealing his black Calvins and nothing else. Jason gazed up at her in a mixture of shock and excitement as she lifted one supple thigh and straddled him easily, her body heat burning him to the core. She planted both hands on his chest and leaned in, grinding her lower body against his as her lips inched toward his.
"Ooh, yeah, I can feel it," she whispered, her sweet breath mingling with his. "You're hot, Morgan. And you know what? So am I."
He didn't even have the capability of forming a coherent thought as her lips seized his fiercely in a passionate, open-mouthed kiss. Their tongues met, mingling, dueling, and Elizabeth smoothed her hands down his arms and twined their fingers together.
She was still straddling him in her ridiculously short nightgown and Jason shifted underneath her, letting her feel the pressure of his hard, hot body right in the cradle of her thighs. The blue-eyed vixen moaned into his mouth, sending all his blood rushing straight down south. Jason pulled his hands free of hers, letting her curl her fingers into the sheets now as he worshipped her mouth, and his fingers went to work pulling on the straps of her nightgown.
The flimsy material gave easily and he tugged it down, baring her perfect breasts. Her mouth was hot and wet on his neck, the column of his throat, as Jason molded her to his palms, strumming her, playing with her, making her whimper his name. He had waited for this moment for so long and now that it was finally here he could barely contain himself. His body was humming with vital energy as she dug her nails into his shoulders and pulled away from his masterful hands, trailing scorching, lingering kisses down his chest, his abdomen, skirting his navel with her tongue, then heading lower…
"Jason? Hey! Jason! Jason, wake up!"
He shot up out of bed like a bullet out of a gun, panting hard and wincing at the pain that suddenly shot through his tight and rock-hard body. Elizabeth's wide eyes were peering at him anxiously, her hand smoothing back his damp hair, and Jason wanted to ram his fist through the wall.
"You all right?" she asked with concern, still smoothing his hair back. "You looked like you were having a dream and-"
"I'm fine," he replied curtly, making sure the blankets were strategically arranged so that she wouldn't notice his…peculiar state of heightened sensitivity. "I – I'm fine."
"You're sweating buckets," she frowned, her hand still clasping his in a gesture so natural that it surprised them both for a moment. "You sure you-"
"I think I'm going to take a shower," he announced suddenly, shifting on the bed to show her that he was serious, though not risking an actual move at the expense of exposing his arousal. "Yeah. I need a shower."
"Okay," she got out slowly, troubling her bottom lip. "You're not dizzy, are you? You think you can make it? If you need me to help-"
"I can do it myself," he assured her, trying furiously to calm his breathing once more. He'd do it himself or die trying.
She shrugged uneasily. "Okay, but be careful. If you get dizzy, just come back to bed, okay? I'm going to run down to your bike and get you some clothes. You do still keep something in the cab, don't you?"
He was nodding, very relieved that she had an excuse to go outside and let him get to the bathroom himself. "Yeah, yeah, in the cab."
Elizabeth grabbed his keys and her coat to retrieve his clothes, and Jason slowly eased himself out of bed. It took him an excruciatingly long time to get into his jeans, and he didn't even bother to zip them up or buckle them, instead pulling his sweater down over them and staggered to the bathroom. By the time Elizabeth got upstairs again, the water was already running. She knocked on the door and deposited his sweatpants and t-shirt on the little counter, then made her way back to his room.
When Jason got back from his frigid shower – he knew it wasn't good in his current feverish state to bathe in such cold water, but certain other bodily situations took precedence – he found that Elizabeth had just finished changing his sheets and was now putting new cases on his pillow. She looked up, smiled at him, and took his hand. Jason allowed himself to be pulled over to the bed and he flopped down, utterly exhausted. If dream-sex with Elizabeth would prove to be that strenuous, he didn't even want to think what state he'd be in afterwards if he was lucky enough to get that chance in real life.
Her classes were called off for the next day so Elizabeth didn't have much to worry about and announced that she could still spend a bit more time with him before she conked out on the carpet. She checked his temperature and frowned at the thermometer some more, and then tried to feed him some more soup. He was able to finish most of it before pushing it away, and Elizabeth actually left it at that through some stroke of infinite mercy.
Time passed slowly and the petite brunette began to yawn, although she made sure Jason didn't notice. As much as she babied him sometimes, she was stunned to realize that he had his own ways of babying her. He always tried to make sure that she ate something healthy and of substance when she ate at the diner – even going so far as to cook for her himself. He never let her leave for school without breakfast, he would periodically check under the hood of her car to make sure everything was running smoothly and even changed the oil for her on one occasion, and he always took care to notice when she was tired and then tried to shuttle her off to bed. She was sure he'd do the same thing now out of that warped sense of nobility of his and she just wasn't going to have any of it.
"You tired, Morgan?" she asked, sticking her fingers in the back pockets of her jeans. "You wanna hit the hay?"
He looked at her curiously before shrugging. "I slept all day, Elizabeth – I'm not tired right now."
But she could see the fatigue that still lay settled across him, and even though he claimed he wasn't tired, she knew that Jason needed to sleep. He was slowly getting better and she wouldn't want him to jeopardize that by not getting enough rest.
"Tell you what," she started, tucking her open hair behind her ears. "I'll stay up with you for a while longer. Just give me a minute to get changed."
Jason watched as she quickly ducked out of the room and appeared moments later wearing her pink pajama bottoms and a matching pink shirt that read simply I am a student of the kama sutra. Oh, what he wouldn't give to find out how well-educated she was.
"You don't have to," he tried to assure her as she rummaged through a small pile of books she carried. "It's okay, you can go to sleep."
"Not tired," she answered simply, finally picking one book out and setting the rest on the dresser before strolling back to bed. He watched as she lifted one leg and climbed onto the bed, sitting Indian-style next to him with a book on her lap. "Besides, I know what we can do until you go to sleep."
His blue eyes were glued to the book as Jason tried to read the title. "What's that?"
"Well, you're always talking about Italy," she smiled back at him, flipping the blue hardcover open. "This is my favorite travel book about Italy."
Jason couldn't help but smirk at her. "You've got a travel book about Italy just lying around in your room?"
"Sure," she replied defensively. "I've also got Egypt, Morocco, a couple on France, one on Spain, Singapore, Taiwan, and Turkey. I like the Italy one best, though, because it has these awesome glossy photographs and everyone knows that there's no place in the world as beautiful as Italy, though some say Kashmir is but I've never really looked into that although I do like that Led Zeppelin song of the same name, so if that's any bearing on it-" she trailed off when she noticed him smiling. "It's pretty weird that I have this lying around and I've never been to Italy, isn't it?"
"Nope," he disagreed, settling down next to her. "I thought I was the only one that kept travel books."
Her eyes lit up at their shared interest, and Jason watched with a small smile as she eagerly flipped the book open and began to read to him. Her voice was sweet and lilting, savoring each word as eagerly as he imagined she'd savor Italy if she ever went, and it didn't take long for him to become completely absorbed.
The minutes ticked by as Elizabeth read, but neither of them noticed. She had slipped into a comfortable rhythm and besides that, she felt quite comfortable in his bed. He had offered her the blankets and now they were both curled up underneath the warm wool as visions of Rome played out before them. She had piled two pillows under head and lay a bit elevated above him, and try as he would, Jason couldn't help but let his eyes droop shut as she continued to read.
"In Italy, the largest cities outside of the northern industrial area are the capital, Rome, and Naples. Rome has a location that is roughly central within Italy. Rome is predominantly a governmental, religious and tourist center. Naples, located farther south, on the west coast of the peninsula, is the port for the populous and productive, but very poor, Campanian agricultural region described earlier. It is also the main urban center of one of Italy's major tourist regions, with attractions such as Mount Vesuvius, the ruins of Pompeii, and the island of Capri in the vicinity."
Her voice was soothing and gentle and before long, Jason slipped into a deep and peaceful slumber in the small, warm room above Kelly's diner.
He awoke sometime in the early morning before the first rays of the sun had kissed the horizon. Jason blinked slowly as awareness set in, and his head actually felt a bit lighter and no longer throbbed painfully. He had slept exceptionally well last night, and from the looks of it, so had Elizabeth.
The brunette beauty was tucked into his side, her head resting on his shoulder and his arm wrapped securely around her waist, anchoring her to him. There was a sublime innocence about her when she slept, making her look years younger and as pure as the driven snow, and Jason was perfectly content to just lay there and watch her, utterly enamored with the delicate wisp of a girl.
His fingertips brushed against her velvety skin, tucking an errant lock of chocolate silk behind the shell of her ear, and Jason's hand lingered above her soft cheek. It was a wonderfully exhilarating feeling – to know that she had fallen asleep in his bed of all places, the book about Italy having now slipped to the floor.
He only had eyes for her as the little brunette muttered something about heffalumps and woozles in her sleep, shifting against him and pressing her cheek hard against his strong shoulder. Holding his breath and utterly unable to help himself, Jason inched closer to her face, his nose brushing hers gently. His lips swept over hers in a light caress, and then he bent closer. Shifting on the bed, he rolled over slightly so that she was perfectly ensconced in his arms.
Her breath rattled out past her lips as Jason pressed his lips more insistently to her soft, warm ones, kissing her softly and with baited breath. Something inside him fluttered and blossomed when she responded softly beneath him, kissing him back gently. His lips caressed hers more firmly now, and Jason could barely manage to curb back a moan when her small hand rose limply to cup the back of his neck, her clipped nails scraping lightly against his scalp as he slipped his tongue past those full lips.
She was just as sweet as she had been the first time he had kissed her, and she tasted of hot apple cider on a freezing winter morning, melted marshmallows on a muggy summer night. She was exquisite and opened for him wonderfully, inviting him in to the delectable recesses of her warm mouth and Jason was absolutely powerless to resist. He kissed her softly and slowly, savoring each taste, each caress, each feeling.
The brunette murmured something against his lips and Jason pulled back slowly, gazing in wonder down at her. Her lips were red and swollen from his kisses, her skin slightly flushed, but still she slept on. Gently, he rolled back into place, keeping one arm around her waist the whole time and being careful not to jar her. His heart was still thundering when she shifted against him, bringing one hand to rest against his chest.
Jason's breath caught in his throat when those beautiful eyes he loved so much floated open, and Elizabeth stared sleepily back at him from half-hooded orbs. Her lips curved into a slow, sleepy smile and her raven lashes descended once again, hiding those pools of cornflower blue from his view. His heart was still racing as she murmured something about purple ballet slippers and cuddled up against him, and as Jason wrapped his arms protectively around her waist, he couldn't help but let himself think about how perfect his life would be if every morning could be like this.