Chapter Eleven

The waiting room was empty. It was just me, John, and the man at the desk. And he was behind a clear wall so it didn't really count.

The door opened again. A tall woman stepped out. "Tawny Clark?"

I pushed myself to my feet with a sniff.

"Right this way, please." She guided me back with a smile.

I brushed against John in farewell as the door closed between us. He wasn't allowed to come back with me.

The nurse led me to a small room with a counter, a sink, a doctor's chair, and a bed.

The door closed behind her. She pulled out a datapad. "Now, can you tell me what your symptoms are?"

I pushed myself up onto the bed and sniffed again. "I've been coughing and sneezing. And I can't breath out of my nose. A-and my head hurts, a little."

"Mmm hmm." She typed as I spoke. "Is that all?"

"Oh, and I teleport, w-when I sneeze."

"You...what?" She looked up at me with furrowed brows.

I blushed a bit. "T-teleport. I can do it whenever I want to, normally, but when I sneeze it just happens."

"You're that girl," she realized. That was why my name had sounded familiar to her.

I nodded.

"Got it. I'll call your handler to talk about your more...abnormal...symptoms. In the meantime, how long have the symptoms been present?"

"They started this afternoon, um...when we got back from th-the surface."

She typed that down. "Very good. Alright, Professor Anders and a medical doctor will be right in. Press the call button if you need anything."

Then she walked out.

I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes. My breath seemed to bubble in my chest as I breathed in and out.

My breathing felt so labored. As if, even when my lungs fully expanded, they weren't getting enough air.

It had happened before, I got sick pretty frequently as a teen, but it was annoying.

John brushed against me. "Anders is here."

"Yeah, the nurse called her in for the sneezing issue."

He brushed affectionately against me. I returned the gesture.

The door slid open. Ellen walked in. "Tawny? What's happening?"

I coughed again. "Hi, Ellen."

"Are you okay? You look like shit."

"Yeah, I'm just sick I think."

"Well then, why did they call me?" She put her hands on her hips.

"Oh." I blinked a few times. "I keep teleporting when I sneeze."

She crossed her arms. "Really?"

I nodded.

"Every time you sneeze, or did this start recently?"

"A few minutes ago," I provided.

She looked down with a focused hum. "Then it's probably because of your-"

The door opened. An old man walked in with a datapad. "Ms. Clark? I'm Dr. Peters."

"Hi."

"It says here you're not feeling too good."

Ellen crossed her arms; she didn't like being interrupted.

I sniffed again. "Yeah, I just can't breathe great."

"I'm going to run a few tests, okay?" Dr. Peters pulled his stethoscope out and pressed it against the skin above my sternum; he didn't have to pull the neckline down since John's shirt was too big on me and hanging off of one shoulder.

The metal plate was cold.

"Can you breathe in for me?"

I took a deep breath. It agitated the mucus in my throat and I coughed a bit.

"Sorry," I winced.

Dr. Peters readjusted the stethoscope. "Try again."

I took a careful, slow, measured breath.

He listened for a bit.

Then, "Okay, now breathe out."

I released my breath.

"Turn around for me, ma'am."

I turned to face the wall with my legs crossed. He pulled the neckline of John's shirt down and pressed the stethoscope on the lower left side of my ribs.

It was still cold, but not as cold as it had been.

"Breathe in," he instructed.

I did.

Ellen, behind the doctor, asked, "Can you still teleport like normal?"

"Breathe out."

I released my breath. "I-I'm not sure. I don't see why not."

"Can you try it?"

"Yeah." I nodded. Then I dissolved my body.

I reappeared beside Ellen. My balance was a bit off, and I staggered to keep myself from falling, but I'd teleported.

Ellen nodded. "Good. Well, unless something else happens, there's not much I can do. Come by my office later if you can; I want to record this."

I nodded. "Okay."

"See you." She walked out the door.

Dr. Peters turned to me. "I'm going to take your temperature now, okay?"

"Okay." I pushed myself back up onto the table.

He pulled a thermometer out of the cabinet and pulled the cover off. "Open up."

When I opened my mouth he stuck the thermometer under my tongue. It stayed there for a few moments.

He took it out and checked the temp. Then he tossed it in the garbage and typed something out on his datapad. "I'll be right back, okay?"

I nodded.

John leaned into the bond. "How is it going?"

"It's good." I sat back against the wall. "I think I'm almost done."

Sure enough, Dr. Peters walked right back in. He had a small, clear ball in his fingers. It had two chalky-looking pills inside it.

"Alright, ma'am, your symptoms are consistent with a common cold. It should go away soon, but come back if symptoms persist for more than a week. I'm sending you home with some cold medicine and making a note in your file to keep you off duty for a few days."

I took the pills from him. "Thank you."

"Of course. Make sure to take the medicine once you're back in your room. You're free to go." He walked out, leaving me in the room alone.

I pushed myself off of the bed and padded down the hallway. The door opened for me and I walked out into the waiting room.

John stood. "Are you done?"

I nodded. As soon as the door into the office closed behind me, I popped open the clear capsule and dry-swallowed both pills, one at a time.

"Come on." John took my hand.

So we walked out of the infirmary together.

The shuttle stop up here, with the civilians, wasn't so crowded. There was even an open bench on the right side of the stop.

John sat and pulled me down next to him. I sniffed again - it was getting easier to breathe by the second - and leaned against him.

I could already feel the medicine working; my nose was clearing up a bit. My head didn't feel so tender.

"What did they say?"

I sniffed. "It's a cold, he thinks."

John clamped down on the taunting he'd been about to release. He knew it was a cold.

I was too tired to be affronted.

My eyes closed. I tried to focus on the bond, but I was exhausted. I just wanted to stay there forever, unmoving.

John could feel my fatigue. He wrapped his left arm around me and pulled me into himself.

Christ, he was so comfy.

"Hey," I mumbled almost silently, "d'you think the meds were non-drowsy?"

I could hear John's grin. "No. I don't."

"Yeah...me either." I coughed a bit.

He nudged me a bit. "Can you make it back?"

I blinked my eyes open. "Yeah. Yeah, I can...I can make it."

He didn't even try to hide how much he doubted that.

I was too tired to make a face at him. I halfheartedly sent him my annoyance.

He kissed the top of my head. I could feel him exhale a bit at the undeniable humor of the situation.

I turned into him with a yawn.

I just had to stay awake a few more minutes. Then we'd be home free.

The tram pulled up. I pushed myself lethargically up next to John.

We found two chairs near the back.

Try as I might, I couldn't keep my eyes open.

John brushed against me in the bond.

"I'm awake," I assured him. "Just keeping my eyes closed."

"Why?" His amusement was palpable.

My head fell against his arm. "I can't open them."

He laughed through his nose.

The shuttle stopped, but it wasn't ours.

Somebody I knew walked in. "Tawny?"

My eyes struggled to open. "Hey, Davidson."

Bradley sat on my other side. "What did I tell you? It's Bradley, chiquilla. What happened to you?"

"Oh, I'm fine," I slurred.

John placed a possessive arm around my shoulders. "She's sick."

"You should go to the doctor." Bradley was suddenly concerned.

My head fell back against John's shoulder. "I did. I...he gave me some meds. I think they're making me sleepy."

"Ah," Bradley laughed. "You should probably head back to your room, then."

"I am." I tried so hard to open my eyes, but it wasn't happening.

"But you just left the civilian deck."

Bradley realized, right after he said that, what that meant. I was going to John's room.

John tensed around me.

Bradley sighed. "Tienes suerte de que nadie la haya reportado." (You're lucky no one's reported it.)

I hummed sleepily. "No estamos lastimando a nadie." (We're not hurting anybody.)

He didn't say anything.

A really dumb idea filtered into my head. There was a bit of a loopy grin on my face.

"Hey, Bradley?" I said.

"Yes?"

"¿Cómo se dice 'un zapato' en Inglés?" (How do you say 'a shoe' in English?)

He paused for a moment at the strange question. "Um...a shoe?"

"Gesundheit," I giggled.

His emotions exploded with something akin to incredulous amusement.

"Oh, my god," he eventually said. I got the distinct impression that he'd buried his face in his hands.

I remembered something. My eyes fluttered open. "Oh, yeah. I-I need to talk to Keyes."

Bradley's eyes narrowed. "For what?"

"To...to...I need to ask him something. About Admiral Cole. The SPARTANs."

The shuttle stopped again.

John pulled me to my feet and nodded to Bradley. "Colonel."

"SPARTAN."

"Bye, Bradley." I followed John off of the tram.

"Bye, chiquilla."

My feet dragged through the shuttle stop.

When we reached the hallway John stopped by the wall. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "I'm just...I'm just really tired."

"We're almost back."

I nodded again.

We walked at a glacially slow pace through the hall. I tried to speed up, I really did, but every part of my body felt so heavy.

It was blessedly dim in John's room.

John sat down on the bed and held his arms out to me.

I flopped down on top of him. I was draped over his legs, my feet still on the ground and my face buried in the bedspread.

He laughed a bit and laid down. "Come on."

I groaned into the blanket.

Then I kicked my boots off and pulled myself up onto John. My face was smushed into his chest, but without his armor it was incredibly comfortable.

"It's stupid that you get in trouble for letting me sleep in your room," I grumbled.

He wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head. "You can sleep now."

I turned my head to the side so I could breath. My ear was pressed into his chest and I could hear his heartbeat.

His heartbeat was so much slower than mine. I knew it was one of his augmentations; his heart was more efficient, so it didn't need to pump as fast.

It thrummed like a bass pulse in his chest. It was kind of hypnotic, especially in my state.

I wrapped my arms around him as best as I could.

He ran one hand down my body. When it settled in the dip of my back he tapped it twice with two fingers.

"I love you, too," I murmured, just before I fell asleep.

oOOOo

My sense of time was fucked, but I was pretty sure it was the middle of the night.

It made sense; I felt tired, so I couldn't have slept for more than a few hours, and I'd fallen asleep in the late evening. Midnight was probably a mostly-accurate guess.

I was alone in the bed.

John was at the desk, reading a datapad. Based on his dull emotions, it was something boring and work related.

My nose was stopped up again.

I pushed myself up and leaned against the wall.

"What time is it?" My voice was raspy again.

"Twenty-three-eleven." John glanced up from the datapad. "How do you feel?"

"I'm okay." I stubbornly ignored both my stopped up nose and my shoulder, which was aching from my weight on it.

We just sat there for a few moments. Well, I sat there and John resumed reading the datapad.

My left shoulder, the one against the wall, shifted in with a pop. It wasn't super painful, but it always felt weird.

I pushed myself to my feet with a sniff.

"Did the medicine wear off?" John looked up from his datapad.

I shrugged a bit. "I'll live. I don't want any medicine; I'll be okay."

"If you're sure." He turned back to the documents.

I lifted his arm up and sat on his lap, wrapping my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. I leaned my head against his neck with a happy, raspy hum.

He placed his left hand on my back and tapped it twice.

I tapped above his shoulder blade twice.

And we sat like that for a while. His fingers were running over my hair as he read the datapad. He was so comfortable, and upright, that I found my eyes closing.

I wasn't sleepy, I was relieved. I could breathe like this but it wasn't uncomfortable.

I sensed John feeling through the bond to check on me. When he felt my shoulder he leaned down, opened a drawer, and pulled out a shoulder brace.

I buried my face in his neck. "I'm okay; I don't need a brace."

He pushed his chest forward to make me sit up.

I pursed my lips and looked away. "Really."

"For me?" He looked at me with beseeching eyes.

I screwed my eyes shut so I didn't have to meet his.

He pushed against me with the bond. "Tawny."

"Fine," I relented. "You're so fucking stubborn."

I pushed myself to my feet and tugged his shirt off. It fell onto the bed as I took the brace from John.

It was a one-sided brace, so it only went around one shoulder and was secured to my body by a strap under my other arm.

I shivered. "It's so cold in here."

"It's not any colder than usual." John regarded me with concern.

I sat on the bed and wrapped the bedspread around myself. "Are you sure?"

He nodded.

I dropped the bedspread and walked over to the locker. I could feel John's eyes on me, and hear the chair turning to follow me.

I pulled out a unicorn-patterned onesie.

John's side of the bond exploded with incredulity.

"Don't judge me." I held my chin up and dropped my pants.

He met my eyes. There was a tiny smirk on his face. "Who says I'm judging?"

I shot him a deadpan look and pulled the onesie up my body.

He shot back a grin, and turned back to face the desk.

He hadn't slept last night. That meant he needed to sleep tonight. But based on what I was feeling in the bond, he had no intent to sleep tonight.

I would have to change that.

My nose got that annoying tickle, and I groaned a bit.

Then I sneezed. I also teleported to the corner of the room below the foot of the bed and landed on my butt.

I pushed myself onto the bed with a small sigh.

"You should take a break from that," I said to John.

"And do what?" John didn't look away from his datapad.

"Lay down with me?" I suggested innocently.

He lowered the datapad and looked up at me.

I bit my lip, wrapping my arms around myself. "Please? It's so cold without you."

"Are you trying to...guilt me into going to sleep?" He leaned back in his chair.

I offered him a doe-eyed look. "Is it working?"

His eyes pierced into mine. He pushed himself up and sat on the bed next to me. "Is it?"

"Well, you're not asleep yet." I looked him up and down.

He laughed through his nose and wrapped his arms around me. I let him draw me close, soaking in his heat.

I really was freezing.

He pressed his lips against the top of my head. "You're not still tired, are you?"

"I'm always tired." I looked up, resting my chin on his chest, to shoot him a victorious look. "So you've got no excuse. You have to sleep."

He laid down, pulling me with him, and tugged the bedspread up over us. "I think I can handle that."

"Are you sure?" I snarked.

"Shh." He kissed my head.

I shifted so that I was higher up, and could make eye contact with him. "You're not going to get up as soon as I fall asleep, right?"

"I won't."

"Do you promise?"

His mouth twitched. "I promise."

Got him.

John never broke his promises.

I dropped my head onto the pillow. "If you took care of yourself like you take care of me…"

"You need the care."

"So do you." My face scrunched up.

He just kissed my nose.

My eyes slid closed. "I love you."

"I love you."

oOOOOo

Author's Note: Have I mentioned that, when I force myself to write it, I'm a sucker for fluff?

Also I'm vacationing with my Very Traditional family so imma pull a little thing called *pretends to be straight so I don't get kicked out*

I love you guys sm!