Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Glee. All of the rights to the show go to Ryan Murphy and Co., and Twentieth Century Fox.
After about thirty seconds of wet, disgusting coughs coming from Mason's bedroom, Madison made the executive decision to barge in and give him a piece of his mind. Sure, she understood how ill her brother was, but it was repulsive just hearing it. "Mason, cover your darn mouth!" she called from the hallway. "That's nasty."
Mason was this close to giving her a stingy remark, but then his throat suddenly took his ability to form a clear sentence. His response to Madison ended up being scratchy, audible noises that Madison couldn't understand.
"What the hell, Mason? Speak up." Madison spoke, confused.
Still, the same scratchy sounds escaped his mouth, and Madison got a little worried. Two days ago, it was a runny nose. Then it was a stuffy nose. Then it was a couple of coughs, which turned into rough, continuous ones. If this was nature's way of saying that Mason's sickness was improving, it sure did give off a shitty vibe to it.
"Stay right there." Madison ordered before she walked into the kitchen where her father was reading the Sunday morning newspaper. His reading glasses slid off the bridge of his nose the moment his daughter shook him for his attention. "Dad, Mason's cold is getting worse. He's not speaking to me."
Mr. McCarthy placed his newspaper down and placed his reading glasses on top of the current page he was reading. "Where are you getting at, Maddie?"
"Frog in his throat." Madison replied, unfortunate.
It took a couple of seconds and a long hum from Mr. McCarthy's lips, but he decided to get up and explore the ingredients around the kitchen they could use to cure Mason. "I'm sure your mother had some tea in here somewhere," he only mumbled as he opened each of the cabinets hanging above the counters.
Madison checked the pantry beside the back door for anything they could use. The only good things she could find were some soup cans that look as if they haven't been opened in a while, along with a bottle of lemon juice and some apple cider vinegar. She remembered a while back when she had a sore throat like Mason did, and their mother came up with this remedy that Madison could faintly remember. Not too much of the directions were on the top of her head, but she still had an idea.
"Dad, what about this?" she asked, taking both the lemon juice bottle and the apple cider vinegar bottle out of the pantry. "And we can make him soup and a sandwich for lunch."
Her dad had whirled around with a container of salt in his hand and inched an eyebrow on his forehead. "You sure you know what you're doing with that, hon?" he asked.
Madison playfully scoffed. "Of course I know what I'm doing."
"Good." Mr. McCarthy replied, and he jumbled the salt container in his hands for a few moments. "I was this close to preparing the salt water remedy on him."
At that, Madison frowned in disgust. "That's really disgusting."
Mr. McCarthy held his hands up in defense. "Hey, it works. It's nasty as hell, but it works."
"And then Mason would have to sacrifice swallowing any and all flavored drinks that we're no longer stocked up on," Madison teased, one of her hands gesturing towards the refrigerator. The McCarthy family didn't really drink soda on a weekly occasion, and the twins weren't old enough for alcohol.
Madison's father joined in with the laughter. "I guess you're right, sweetheart."
It took about an hour to prepare everything. In the end, Madison and her father chose to make a BLT sandwich with some soup, in addition to the apple cider remedy Madison willfully chose to teach her father how to make. The food, according to Mason, was delicious. Once he had gotten close to finished with his food, he took the glass of apple cider and drank every drop until it was empty.
"Everything good, Mason?" Madison asked him, taking his empty plate and bowl for him. The moment he readied himself to give a compliment to her, Madison stopped him. "Don't. You rest your voice off." And with that, Madison was out of the room to clean everything up.
Mr. McCarthy had stepped into the room once his daughter was gone to sit on the edge of the bed by Mason's feet. "Your sister's the real nurse, isn't she?" Mason nodded, and his father just laughed. "Man, what would we be without her?" Mr. McCarthy sighed.
In a split second, Madison was back in the room with a book in her hands. She walked all the way to the other side of Mason's bed to sit down with him so she could open the book. "Remember that story Mom used to read us when we got sick?" Madison told her brother before opening the worn-down copy of Blue Skies When Time Flies on her lap. "I'm gonna read it to you, alright?"
Mason didn't say anything; he just went along with the flow.
It was gonna be a long afternoon, but it was something he and Madison could handle.
Author's Note: Probably the fluffiest chapter of this I've ever written so far. Oh, and by the way, the title of the book Madison pulled for her to read was a book I made up when typing this (so yeah, Google isn't needed here, lmao). Sorry that this was one of the shorter chapters, but I wasn't sure on what else to add, so I decided to keep it the way it is. Plus, this was kind of done at the last minute. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Keep the recommendations coming, and happy reading.