Kids, as you both know, nothing makes you feel better when you're sick than having your mother take care of you. It's pure magic and I'll never know how she does it. I'll also never forget the first time she got sick, and I wound up being the one taking care of her. I was up at the house, working on a few finishing touches in one of the upstairs bathrooms when I got her phone call, asking me not to visit because she had a nasty cold. Of course, your good old dad took that as a cry for help from his damsel in distress, and I headed straight to your mother's apartment…

… . … . …

"Jess?"

Letting himself into the apartment, thanks to the key she had given him, Ted Mosby frowned a bit when his call gained him no response. It was just a cold, right? He wasn't going to find her dead on the floor somewhere. That was ridiculous.

Yet he still ran through the place so fast he almost tripped on her rug by the couch, skidding toward her bedroom door and stumbling into the room. He found her asleep, cuddled up under a pile of blankets, her nose red from blowing it so much. Smiling faintly, Ted crossed the room to adjust her blankets, giving her a small, apologetic smile when she opened her eyes.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."

"Ted?" she croaked out, her voice hoarse as she started to wake up a bit more. "What are you doing here…? I told you…" cough, "I'm…" sneeze, "sick."

Giving her a small smile, Ted reached over to push her bangs out of her face, most of her hair tied back in a careless, messy ponytail. "All the more reason for me to come right away," he stated, making sure she was warm enough as he sat perched on the edge of her bed. "Can I get you anything?"

"No…" She looked embarrassed, actually, and Ted couldn't understand why.

"What is it?" he asked upon noticing her expression, and she sniffled quietly, hiding half of her face with a tissue.

"I didn't want you to see me like this," she stated, somewhat miserably, "I'm a mess, and I look disgusting. I'm not even dressed or showered…"

"You're sick," he stated, shaking his head at her worries, "You're right where you need to be; resting. Now tell me, honestly: is there anything I can get for you?"

Sighing, she closed her eyes for a minute, a headache starting to build within her skull. "A few Tylenol would be nice," she informed him as she sank back into her pink pillows, and Ted nodded, getting to his feet.

"Kitchen?" he asked, and she shook her head.

"Bathroom, in the cabinet over the sink," she explained, and he nodded, starting to walk out into the hall until she called after him, "Ted…?"

"Yeah?" he asked, turning again at the doorway, and she gave him a tiny smile, her eyes tired but appreciative.

"Thank you…"

As it turned out, your mother didn't have any Tylenol; the bottle in the cabinet over the bathroom sink was empty. So, rather than have her go out and get it herself, I offered to run to the nearest drugstore and get her some, along with anything else she needed or wanted. Her list was as follows…

"One bottle of Tylenol, two boxes of tissues, a bottle of grape flavored cough syrup, nasal spray, a case of ginger ale, and cough drops."

Going about putting everything into a basket, Ted was absently grateful that she hadn't asked him to get her tampons or something like that; sure, he loved the girl to death, but he wasn't sure if they were… there yet.

Once he had retrieved it all, Ted headed up to the counter to pay. Jessica had tried to give him money for all of it, but he had refused; it was just a few things to help her get better. He didn't mind paying for it in the slightest. It was the least he could do, and he planned to do more.

"Have a sick kid at home?" the cashier asked as she rang everything in, and Ted couldn't help but feel a bit lousy at her words. Was it bad that he wished he could say yes? Of course, he wouldn't want his future child to be sick, but it would be nice to just have that child. Really, really nice…

"Uh, no; no, a girlfriend, actually," he explained, nodding a bit awkwardly with a small smile, and the cashier gave him a sympathetic look he knew all too well. It was the, "oh, so you're still only dating and you're how old?" look. He frequently received it at parties and family reunions. It sucked, and he couldn't stand it, but he wasn't just going to rush into things with Jessica to make that feeling go away. He wanted it to work between them, and rushing had never benefitted him in the long run in the past. Just look at how things with Stella ended up.

"She must have that nasty cold going around," the cashier stated, looking at him with a small grin, "Aren't you worried about catching it?"

"Oh, no," Ted stated, waving a dismissive hand and shaking his head, "I'll be fine. My immune system is in tiptop shape."

Shaking her head, she seemed to be trying not to laugh. "That's what they all say," she stated, handing him his bag after he paid, and Ted sighed as he left the drugstore and began the walk back uptown. It was no one else's business how fast or how slow things with he and Jessica were going; not even Barney, who had taken up the habit of frequently calling him and asking if he'd "done it in any freaky positions with robot painter girl yet." Unsurprisingly, he and Robin were thrilled that it had been their wedding that had helped Ted find the girl of his dreams. It was harder for Lily and Marshall to stay up to date on everything, given how expensive long distance calls were, but they emailed and video chatted as often as they could with their busy schedules.

"I'm back!" Ted finally called when he arrived back at the apartment, bringing everything into the bedroom again, setting the case of soda on the floor and putting the bag of other items on the bed as he sat down. "Cough medicine and drops, nasal spray, Tylenol, and two boxes of tissues. Take your pick, beautiful."

"Oh, stop it," she chided with a sniffle, grabbing the Tylenol first and taking the bottle out of its box, fiddling with the protective seal under the cap. "I have a runny nose, red eyes, and my hair is awful. I'm not beautiful."

"Hey," he objected softly, shaking his head at her words, tilting her chin up and briefly distracting her from opening the small bottle of pills. "You're beautiful, no matter what. So you have the sniffles and your eyes are a bit puffy; it's natural. It doesn't change how you look to me."

"How…?" she asked with confusion, sniffling again, and Ted passed her a tissue to wipe her nose.

"You're beautiful to me because of who you are," he stated, taking her freehand as she held the tissue to her nose. "Even if they're a bit red and puffy, your eyes are still kind and honest, and full of love… Your smile still makes my heart skip a beat because I live to see it, and everything about you is still the girl I fell in love with." Smiling softly, Ted reached up to tuck a piece of hair behind her ear. "She's just a little sick, that's all."

Smiling softly, Jessica took the tissue away from her nose, her eyes welling with tears, which probably wouldn't help matters with her nose, but she couldn't help it. Her voice wavering a bit, she let one or two fall. "Oh, Ted…"

Mirroring her smile, he leaned in to kiss her, pausing when she stopped him.

"Oh, no, don't! You'll get sick, too…"

Shaking his head, Ted grinned softly, not even caring as he went ahead and pressed a soft, tender kiss to her lips anyway. Keeping it slow and sweet, he pulled back after a moment, glad to see a flush in her cheeks that wasn't caused by a fever.

"It'll be worth it," he assured her, smiling softly as he moved to open the Tylenol for her.

Later that night, after it had started to pour rain outside, Jessica had requested he make her some chicken noodle soup, and he'd frowned when he realized she didn't have any of that, either. So, almost out of habit, he took the yellow umbrella from its perch by the door and made his way down to that same drugstore given that it was the closest, sighing when he realized it was still the same cashier as earlier. She'd no doubt have more questions once she recognized him, and he wasn't in the mood. He just wanted to get back to Jessica before any thunder started; she didn't like storms at all, and being sick on top of that would be awful for her.

"Nice umbrella," she commented when he reached the checkout with the can of instant chicken noodle soup, and Ted sighed.

"Thanks. It's my girlfriend's," he stated, and he gritted his teeth when she gave him that same look again.

"You two share an umbrella and you're still only dating? Sounds like it's more serious than you're giving it credit for."

Shaking his head as she rang up his one lonely item, Ted tried not to frown.

"We're taking things slow," he explained, even though he really didn't have to, "We both just got out of bad relationships recently, and we don't want to rush this. We want it to work. I want it to work."

"I can tell," she stated with a grin as she put the soup in a bag, and Ted frowned at her statement.

"How can you possibly tell? You don't know her, or me; you don't even know my name."

She blinked a bit at his small outburst, the receipt printing out in the silence. "Well, given that you've come down here twice today for her, the second time in the pouring rain with nothing but an umbrella to keep you dry, I'd say you want things to work," she stated simply, trying to be delicate, and Ted paused before deflating.

"Oh," he said simply, feeling like a total ass for snapping at a stranger like that. "Oh… Yeah, you're right. Look, I'm sorry…"

"Don't be. I understand what it's like; the girl you care about is sick, and you're anxious to get back to her."

Ted nodded in agreement, taking a deep breath. "How much?"

"It'll be $3.74, please," she asked, and he nodded, handing over the change and taking his bag.

"Thanks."

To Ted's chagrin, the rain had, in fact, worsened while they had talked, and he struggled to run up the street back to Jessica's apartment, not wanting to leave her alone for much longer. When he got there, he immediately put the soup on the stove to heat up before going to check on her.

She had a fever, and that worried him. He knew it was nothing serious; just a common cold; but even the slightest possibility of losing this girl terrified him.

"You're burning up," he said softly, pulling her blankets back, and she sighed uncomfortably.

"You were gone a long time… I tried to sit up to get changed, but I'm so tired…"

Feeling guilty, he pulled her into his arms, helping her out of her pink robe so she wouldn't be as hot, kissing her warm forehead. "I'm sorry… I got stuck talking to the cashier at the drugstore… I tried to hurry…"

"I know, I know…" she assured him softly, and she really did sound exhausted. Grabbing two more Tylenol, he helped her take them with some water before getting her comfortable.

"Sleep, okay? We can reheat your soup later…"

Nodding lethargically, Jessica was asleep within seconds, and Ted gently draped a thin bed sheet over her before getting up and walking to the bathroom, wetting down a cloth with cold water to put over her forehead to help lower her fever. Once that was done, he hurried to check on the soup, stirring it a bit before taking it off the heat and putting the cover on the pot to save it for later.

Instead of working on the house, Ted spent the rest of the weekend nursing his girlfriend back to health, holding her while she napped and getting her anything she needed. The cashier wasn't there again Saturday, or Sunday. Ted wasn't sure if he was relieved or disappointed that no one asked him about his items or his life.

Surely enough, too, as soon as he was back in Chicago, Ted came down with the same nasty cold; and, surely enough, eleven hours after their phone call, Jessica was at his door with soup in one hand, and medicine in the other. She had him feeling better in a little under 24 hours. He liked to call it the Milonsi Medical Magic; or, a few years down the road, the Mosby Medical Magic.