Flu Induced Fevers

Beca knew she wasn't one hundred percent during Bellas rehearsal on Wednesday night. Her whole body was sore and she had no energy (and even Aubrey could see that she wasn't slacking off just to slack off).

So when she woke up on Thursday morning with a stuffy nose, scratchy throat, pounding head and aching bones, she wasn't surprised. She wasn't happy, but she wasn't surprised.

Rolling over, she buried herself in her mountain of pillows and blankets, closing her eyes and ignoring the world. But after a few moments of her head pounding, she emerged from the blankets (shivering), shuffling over to her desk. Groaning at the effort, she plucked a box of Tylenol and swallowed two, wincing. Looking at the clock (realising that she was actually never up that early); she picked up her phone, sending a quick text to Jesse.

Not coming to the station today, I'm sick. Sorry.

Jesse's reply popped up on her phone almost immediately.

Ok, I'll let Luke know. Hope you feel better! Do you want me to bring you anything?

She fell back onto her bed, curling up underneath the blankets.

Thanks. No it's ok. See you later.

Letting Chloe know (because Aubrey would have a fit if she didn't turn up to practice), she set the phone aside, burying herself underneath the blankets and waiting for the Tylenol to stop her head pounding and her body aching.

She was a little dramatic when she was sick. She was the first to admit it. But excuse her for wanting a little sympathy.

(And she was not getting sympathy from Kimmy Jin. The Asian had taken one look at her and escaped, probably going to stay with one of her Korean friends or something. Beca didn't know and she didn't care.)

She looked like shit. Upon standing up (and regretting it) she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Purple bags hung under her eyes (making it look like she hadn't slept in a month), her nose was red and raw, her throat burned and she had absolutely no energy.

So when there was a knock at the door, she just groaned.

"Go away", she croaked.

"Beca, its Chloe", the redhead said sweetly. "I'm just coming to check on you".

Groaning, she rolled off the bed and shuffled towards the door, opening it a crack.

"Hi!" Chloe said brightly.

"Hi", Beca grumbled. "What's up?"

"I just came to check on you", Chloe said in surprise. "I didn't think Kimmy Jin would care, so I thought it would be best if I brought around some more Tylenol". She held up a box and Beca accepted it gratefully, knowing there was only two left in her own box.

"Thanks".

"Aubrey says she doesn't want you at practice until you're completely well again, for the risk of spreading it among the other Bellas", Chloe continued (and the way that she furrowed her eyebrows made Beca one hundred percent certain that her words were quoting Aubrey), "But she says she hopes you feel better soon".

"Thanks", she repeated, leaning against the wall (her head pounding).

"Anyway, I'm going to get back to practice, alright, but I really do hope you feel better soon". Chloe hugged her quickly, kissing her forehead (wincing at how hot it was, there was no doubting the girl was sick). "See ya later Becs".

"Bye Chloe", she whispered.

Once the redhead had disappeared from sight, she closed the door and crawled into bed, groaning when her phone buzzed beside her. Wriggling under the blankets, shivering from the fever, she slid her thumb across the screen, opening up a new text from Jesse.

Hey Becs, hope you're feeling better. If you're awake let me know, I've got some things for you

Sighing heavily, she typed out a reply, pressing send quickly.

Sure.

Somewhere in between sending the message and Jesse knocking on the door, she fell asleep. It was Jesse's knock that woke her up, startling her and her blanket sliding to the floor. Picking it up and wrapping it around her shoulders, she shuffled towards the door, opening it a crack.

"Hey Becs"! He said brightly.

(The moment she saw him was the moment she realised that she wasn't wearing a scrap of makeup, and was still in her pyjamas. Her purple pyjamas with the penguins on the pants.)

"Hi", she croaked, stepping aside to let him in. "Don't say anything".

But, as usual, he didn't listen. "You look awful", he said honestly, dropping the bags he was carrying to feel her forehead. She shied away from his cool palm, frowning and sitting back down on the bed, crossing her legs and tucking the blankets around her.

"What are you doing here?" she said finally.

"Oh". He knelt down, ferretting through the selection of bags he had been holding. "You said you were sick, and I didn't think Kimmy Jin was going to care what was wrong with you. So I took it upon myself, as your best friend and or lover-"

"Don't say lover".

"- to make sure that you get well as soon as possible". He grinned at her. "I mean, there was no one at the station to talk to!"

"What about Luke?"

"He hates me, the only reason he wants me to stick around is to be his lunch bitch".

(It was true.)

Jesse produced a bottle of Vicks, holding it out to her. "Vicks and Tylenol Cold and Flu, how does that sound?"

She reached out for the bottle of Vicks, taking it with probably too much enthusiasm.

"Dry biscuits, because I didn't know how your stomach would take it and whether or not you were spewy sick or just flu sick", Jesse continued, producing a box of crackers. "Juice pouches, because you need to keep up your vitamin levels".

"Uh huh".

(How many vitamins were in juice pouches, anyway? That's what she wanted to know. She didn't think there were that many, but Jesse was always bouncing with health, so maybe the boy was onto something.)

"Sprite, to settle your stomach. Again, I wasn't sure how sick you were".

She nodded.

"My laptop and a selection of awesome DVDs, because we may as well take this opportunity to continue your movication".

She groaned a little (Jesse chose to ignore it). "Jesse, I'm sick", she croaked. "No movies".

(What was wrong with her?)

"I'm hurt".

"Of course you are".

(It was unbelievable, she was dying and yet she was still able to roll her eyes at him. That girl was a piece of work.)

"And ice cream, because everyone needs ice cream when they're sick". He held up a tub of vanilla ice cream and a bottle of hot fudge sauce.

(He remembered that hot fudge was her favourite. That was sweet of him, she had to admit it.)

"No ice cream". She shook her head. "I'm not hungry".

"You're not gonna throw up, are you?" he asked, concerned.

"No, I'm not hungry". She shook her head,

Her stomach ached and while she didn't feel sick to it, she felt that if she ate something she would most likely throw it back up, and she didn't want to do that.

"Okay, no food", he agreed, setting the biscuits on the desk and shoving the ice cream into the mini fridge and freezer that he was sure Kimmy Jin wouldn't share with Beca. "Let's just watch a movie".

"You came over here while I was dying to torture me?" she whined.

"It's ET, Beca!" his eyes widened, because even she would like ET (he was going to break the unbreakable Beca Mitchell, even if it killed him. It most probably would). "You'll love it".

So, ignoring her complaints, he slotted the disc into his laptop, settling onto the bed beside her (ignoring her warnings of how the blankets were probably covered in her germs by now and that he was risking his own health and well-being in favour of torturing her). He glued his eyes to the screen, a comical stream of trivia pouring from his mouth, and Beca sighed, resignedly.

Curling up in her bed (to keep herself warm because she was freezing and covered in goosebumps), she rested her head on the pillows, barely focusing on the movie.

"You cold?" he questioned, and she just nodded, trying to keep her teeth from chattering.

"Mmm hmm".

"I'm not adjusting the heating in here, because when your fever breaks you'll be sweating and the heat will only make it worse", he told her, the voice of experience. But he tugged off his Treble hoodie and offered it to her. "Put this on, it's already warm because I've been wearing it all day".

"You'll be cold", she protested, keeping her arms tucked under her blankets.

"Just take it, it's warm in here". He smiled at her, a genuine smile, and she took the hoodie off him, tugging it on.

(It was about eighteen sizes too big but it was warm and smelled like Jesse.)

(That was the moment that Beca Mitchell realised that having Jesse Swanson around wasn't such a bad thing.)

"Hey Jess?" she murmured, her voice barely a whisper (at that point, Lily was probably louder than her).

"Yeah?" Jesse looked up and over at the tiny girl, all curled up and comfy in her bed.

"Thanks for being here today", she said softly, her eyelids drooping and making her look younger than she was.

"Wouldn't want to be anywhere else", he said with a grin.

She smiled at him, a smile that he had never seen before. "Thank you", she whispered again.

(He wasn't sure, but he was about ninety nine percent positive that that was the moment that he completely, one hundred percent fell head over heels in love with the mystery that was Beca Mitchell.)

As she succumbed to sleep (knowing that she'd been fighting it just so they could talk), he smiled at her. He hated that Aerosmith had made watching people while they sleep popular, and he hated that Twilight had made it creepy.

The Beca in the bed was so different to the badass he saw at the station. Her eyes were not outlined in the black eyeliner and dark eye shadow, and she seemed even smaller than usual in her purple pyjamas pants (with penguins. Beca Mitchell wore pyjamas adorned with cartoon penguins). She looked peaceful, despite the rattle he heard every time her breathing hitched and the flush in her cheeks that was solely due to the fever she was running.

"Sleep tight Beca", Jesse said softly, brushing back a sweaty lock of hair. Closing his laptop and easing himself of the bed carefully as to not wake her up, he pulled the blankets up tighter over her. He pressed his hand to her forehead, feeling the fever radiating off her, vowing to return when she woke up.

Scrawling on a sticky note, he slapped it to a water bottle and left it within arm's reach of the tiny brunette. He hated to leave her, but he knew he had to- knowing his luck Chloe or Fat Amy or Stacie would come to check up on her, and explaining why he was there would not be an easy thing to do.

"Get better, Bec", he told her, picking up his backpack and closing the door beside her.

Beca woke up to a cold spot where Jesse had been sitting, and she frowned slightly, because she had gotten used to having him around. Shivering and stretching, she reached out to grab her water bottle and found a sticky note attached to it.

Sleep tight Becs

She smiled to herself, despite her pounding head. Checking her phone, she found a multitude of messages from Chloe and the rest of the Bellas, wondering if she was still alive, why she wasn't answering, and the threat that if she didn't reply by seven p.m, they would be breaking into her dorm to see if she was alive. Chloe wanted to know if she wanted anything, and that she would stop by the café to get chicken noodle soup for her.

(Beca generally scarfed chicken noodle soup like there was an international shortage when she was sick, but right then the thought of food made her ill to her stomach. And anyone who knew her knew that she had to be sick when she denied food.)

Don't come over, I don't want to spread my germs and risk the wrath of Aubrey. Not hungry. A friend dropped food over for me earlier, don't worry about it. I'm alive but won't be at rehearsals. Bec

(Aubrey would have a field day if she knew that Jesse had spent the afternoon sitting on her bed watching movies with her.)

Lying back down in her bed with earphones in her ears, she nodded off to sleep, feeling a lot lonelier than she had that afternoon.

There was a knock at Beca's dorm door the next morning, and she let out a croak.

"Who is it?"

"Morning weirdo!" Jesse let himself in without an issue, frowning when he saw Beca curled under the blankets. "You feeling any better, Bec?"

She shook her head, wheezing a little. "Those tablets made my stomach hurt", she informed him (sounding nasally and very much like an eight year old boy, she thought).

"Oh". He frowned. "Well, we could eat ice cream and watch a movie".

"That's not going to make my stomach feel any better", she said, her frown even bigger. But then she broke into a small smile. "But I like the way you think". She shivered, and his hand reached out to touch her forehead.

"You're really hot", he told her, and her cheeks flushed pink (from fever or not? She couldn't tell). Stepping over to Kimmy Jin's mini fridge and freezer (if the Asian knew that they were making use of her things, she'd probably kill them in their sleep), he pulled out the ice cream and the two plastic bowls and spoons he had stored there the day before. Dishing out an ample amount for the both of them, he joined her on the bed, propping his laptop up on his knees so they could both see. Beca tucked her knees up around her chin, still huddled in the blankets (because her temperature was sky high and seeming unbreakable to Jesse- if she was still like that in the afternoon, he was taking her to the hospital), holding the bowl gingerly.

"Grease", Jesse said, slotting a disc into his laptop's disc drive.

"A musical?" she wailed (croaked. She didn't wail, she croaked).

"Yes", he told her, a grin on his face.

"I swear to God, nerd, if you sing along you will have to leave". She jabbed at the door with her spoon and he broke into a grin.

"No singing", he agreed.

They got through the first fifteen minutes of the movie (Beca choosing to keep quiet and eat her ice cream, Jesse noted- maybe she was too sick to complain?), Jesse's eyes never leaving his laptop screen.

That was, until the breathing beside him became deeper and heavier. Glancing beside him, he found Beca slumped over, her half full ice cream bowl in danger of falling and getting her blankets all sticky. Taking the bowl from her hands, he rearranged her so that she was lying down, propped up only slightly by her mountain of pillows.

"Sleep tight", he told her, plopping back down on the end of the bed with his laptop.

When she woke herself up coughing an hour later, she was surprised to find Jesse handing her a bottle of water. Taking a small sip, she blinked at him (the action looking like it took a lot of effort).

"You're going to get sick", she croaked.

"No I'm not, I have a great immune system".

She tried to focus on the laptop screen, but her head was pounding and her throat ached. Her vision was blurry ("I'm not drunk at all, you're just blurry". She would have chuckled, if she didn't feel like shit), and she was having trouble focusing.

"You've got class", she protested (because Jesse was always guilting her into attending her own classes, how was it fair that he got to miss his?).

"I can miss one class", he told her. "Besides, I was working while you slept".

(He would never tell her, but she looked so peaceful while she slept. Despite the rattly wheeze she had happening and the greenish purple bags under her eyes- that was so not healthy- she looked peaceful and so unlike the badass Beca Mitchell he knew.)

"What time is it?" Beca wanted to know, and Jesse glanced at the time on his laptop.

"Just after one. You've been napping for about an hour". He frowned, touching his hand to her forehead once more. "You should take some more Tylenol, and then we should go to the medical centre".

She shook her head firmly. "No thanks".

"Beca, you're really sick", he pointed out.

"It's just a slight cold-"

"If this is a slight cold, I'd hate to see you when you're really sick", he said sarcastically.

(She was rubbing off on him.)

"I'll be fine", she told him, breaking off into a barking cough. When he just stared pointedly, she sighed. "If I'm not feeling better in the morning we'll go to the doctor?" she said meekly, and Jesse nodded.

"Darn right we will".

The next time she fell asleep, she found herself resting on his shoulder. Jesse didn't bother to move her, because her breathing wasn't nearly as laboured when she was sitting up, and she fitted perfectly. He just tugged the blankets up a little higher over her, as she tried to fight her illness.

He could totally get used to that.

(She was horrified to find that she had somehow moved while she slept to rest against his chest, and Jesse had done nothing to move her. Their compromising position would not have been easy to explain to the Bellas, had they barged in, hardest of all Aubrey Posen.)

(She blamed it on the fever, but she could have got used to that. the nerd was quite a good nurse, when the chance came up. and he was really comfortable.)

(Although saying something like that aloud would alert Aubrey's vocal cord ripping wolves, so she decided to keep that one to herself.)

A week later, when she was finally feeling well enough to haul herself off her bed and to the station and Bellas practice (and class, under Jesse's insistence), she received a text message from Jesse. He was sick with the same flu that she had had.

(She resisted the urge to tell him that she had told him so. That would be rude, and Beca had made it a general rule never to be rude to the ill.)

So, faking a relapse (and Aubrey wasn't going to risk the health and wellbeing of her Bellas to check on the brunette, did Beca not understand that they had a competition coming up and needed all the rehearsal time they had?), she trotted herself over to Benji and Jesse's dorm, armed with the same necessities that he had brought to her, taking refuge on Jesse's desk chair and making sure that the nerd (her nerd, but she didn't want to sound possessive) didn't die or something.

Because it would really suck not having him around.