He didn't come back home before the next morning. But the fact that he hadn't gotten any texts from Emily had him hopeful.
The apartment was quiet when he unlocked the door, but then again it was barely 7:30 in the morning. He hobbled inside, he couldn't wait to lay down and get his leg up. Being awake and at work for about 24 hours had not done his leg any favors.
He left his backpack right inside the door, checked that he had his phone in his pocket, made a quick detour for his bathroom before he went to bed.
Emily was still there, curled up on 'her' side of the bed. He smiled a tired smile, lifted the covers away from his side, before he fluffed the pillows his leg would rest on, then he stripped down and got into bed. He honestly didn't have the energy to put his clothes away like he normally did.
He grimaced as he lifted his left leg in after himself. Of course he hadn't been able to just sit around like Blackburn had suggested. No, because that was something he had never learned how to do. He needed to be where it all happened, he had to feel that he was actively taking part of stuff. And for the last 24, that had meant hobbling around inside the command room.
Lisa Davis had at one point said that she was tempted to Duct tape him to his chair so he'd get some time off his leg, and she would have done it if she didn't know that he'd have no problems getting loose.
Right now, he would have been grateful if she had done just that. His leg was angry with him.
"You're back…" a sleepy voice mumbled beside him.
He looked down and saw her blinking tiredly at his side. "Yup…"
"How'd it go?" she yawned, "I know you can't give details, but… Success?"
"Yeah, success." he nodded and laid down. He couldn't help the grimace which fluttered across his face.
"And how are you doing?"
"Tomorrow's gonna be a rest day…" he gritted out, "Or, you know… When I wake up…"
She nodded, "And your leg, right now?"
"It'll be better once that pill I just took starts working."
She nodded again.
"How was your day yesterday?"
She shrugged, "About the same as the day before, but I didn't have you to keep me company…"
"Still a lot of cramps, huh?" he asked, tilting his head to look at her.
She nodded a bit, "They should start to get better today…"
"Yeah? There's a… It's predictable?"
"Kinda…" she nodded, "First three-to-four days are the worst, usually."
He nodded, "I hope you're feeling better soon…"
"Right back at you…" she winked and crawled a bit closer.
He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and helped pull her in next to him, then he pressed his lips against her forehead for a soft kiss.
He didn't even notice that he drifted off to sleep before he woke up hours later. Another thing he hadn't noticed was her crawling out of bed, but the smell of fresh coffee and bacon wafted through the bedroom door.
He moved a bit, testing how bad it would be to actually get up. His leg wasn't impressed by his decision, but it didn't flare up as bad as he had expected.
He looked at his watch, it was still a couple of hours until he could take another dose. All in all, he was doing better than expected.
He sat up and started to get dressed, chuckling a bit when he realized that Emily had taken the clothes he had just dumped on the floor when he went to bed, folded them and placed them on the chair beside his nightstand. He must've been in some deep sleep to not notice that she got up, or tidied after him.
He reached for the t-shirt he had meant to wear yesterday, but hadn't because of the whole getting called into work situation, and the sweatpants which actually were baggy around his frame. He was looking forward to not having that metal contraption around his leg at all, and being able to wear regular jeans again.
When he was ready to get up, it didn't cause as much pain as he was prepared for. Hobbling towards the door to the rest of the apartment wasn't as bad either. All in all, he felt a lot better than he thought he would've when he went to bed that morning.
Emily turned around and looked at him when he entered the combined living room and kitchen. She offered up a smile, "Good morning."
He smirked a bit, "Think it's afternoon or something, but… Good morning."
"When you work through the night, any time you get up is the morning. No matter if it's 8 a.m. or 8 p.m. -Or 2p.m. like it actually is." Emily smirked, "Nightshift words of wisdom…"
He chuckled, "Okay…"
"Are you hungry?" she asked.
He nodded a little, "Yeah, kinda."
He hobbled over to the kitchen table and sat down on one of the two chairs which had now returned to it. "How are you feeling today?"
"Better than yesterday." She shrugged.
"-But still not good?" he tilted his head.
She sighed, "I'm not back to my normal yet…"
"Your normal?" he frowned.
She nodded, not adding any information.
"Does that mean you're never all good?"
She chuckled a bit, but there was no humor in it. "No."
"What does it mean then?"
"I don't know… I can't really explain it…" she turned around to face him again, "When I'm back to my normal, I'm good enough to not think about it. But I'm still… There's still these random aches and pains, but they're barely registering. Say a 1 to 2 on that famous pain scale of ours."
Metal nodded slowly, "That's not normal, is it?"
She shook her head, "No. It shouldn't be…"
"Then why haven't your doctor done something about it?"
She chortled, "Because many doctors has the instinct to say 'a bit of period pain is normal', when you claim that it basically renders you useless for days."
"That's just not right…"
She nodded, "But, it's life."
"How? I've seen you these past days… How do you manage to… How can you work, how can you travel across the world and work in a place with that much to do?"
"Because when I do that, I'm on a double dose of contraceptives." She sighed, "I don't have a period while I'm there. And I have less aches and pains when I'm not on my period as well, when I do that."
"So, why don't you do that here?" he studied her, "If it really helps you?"
She shrugged, "My doctor doesn't give me the prescriptions for it when I'm here. Says it's not healthy and all that, and that I shouldn't need it. But, she's willing to give it when I'm traveling over there, because it's a high-stress environment, and I need to be at the top of my game…"
"Can I please meet this doctor of yours and scare some sense into her?" he begged, "Only a little, I promise not to cause physical damage."
She chuckled a bit, "No… But thanks for the offer."
He sighed, "How do you deal with it when you're at home and working?"
"I've got the greatest boss ever…" she smiled, "She's one of my mom's best friends, and basically my fake aunt. And she knows I struggle with this thing. So I get to schedule my shifts with a heavy workload when I'm alright and few shifts when it's that time…"
"That's good."
She nodded, "Yeah, I'm lucky to have her."
"Hey, we all need someone great in our corner some times…" he smirked, "I know it's early on… But when you feel ready for it, I could join you for one of your doctor appointments to help you get your point across. I promise not to scare your doctor… -Only if you want me to, of course…"
She nodded a little, "I think I'd appreciate that."
He nodded, "I just don't get how… When I go to the doctor, I always walk out of there with a solution or a referral for something that'll lead to a solution… If you've been to your doctors with this since you were in your teens, how come they haven't figured something out yet?"
She sighed and nodded, "Well. I blame that on this most likely being a disease which mostly affects women, or people who has been born with female anatomy…"
"I don't know if you've already told me this, but do you think you know what is causing this?"
"Well, I'm guessing endometriosis…" she turned back to the stove and flipped something before turning back to him, "-Or adenomyosis…"
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, those two runs in my family…" she nodded, "And, I've got most of the symptoms for it."
"I think my aunt had one of those…" he said, furrowing his brows, "It was a long word I never really remember."
"It's actually pretty common, so that's very possible."
"Yeah?"
"About 1 in 10 people who were born with female anatomy." Emily nodded, "So, within that group of people, it's just as common as diabetes. But of course, diabetes affects people who were born with male anatomy as well. An even better example is Celiac's disease… That's about 1 in 100, yet most people will know the most crucial stuff about it if you were to say that you have it. They'd most likely know that you can't eat anything with gluten."
Metal nodded, "Yeah, even I know that… I'm not really sure about what happens, but I know that people with Celiac's can't have regular flour and other stuff with gluten because they get sick from it."
Emily nodded, "Enough about that, how are you feeling today?"
"A lot better than I think I have a right to…" he smirked, "My leg's a lot better than I thought it would be…"
"That's good." She smiled.
He nodded as she lifted the last item in the pan over to a plate. Then she turned the stove off and grabbed the two plates to bring them over to the table where Metal sat.
"Figured most people like eggs and bacon, so that's what for breakfast today." She shrugged.
"Oh, yum…"
"I hit jackpot?"
"Yeah, you did!" he grinned, "You're too kind."
She shook her head, "I promise that's not always."
"Well, so far…" he shrugged.