Good morning, good morning! Thank you for all your magnificent reviews on the last chapter! I love them. Seriously, they always bring a smile to my face, so keep 'em coming. ;) We've got roughly eleven chapters left of this story, but I think I may have already come up with another idea. Help me. Once I start, I'll probably never stop. It's fine, though. I'm going to need something to keep me busy from my last day of classes (a week from today, what whaaaat) to graduation. I can't just sit in my apartment and do nothing... Well, I guess I could. But where's the fun in that? :P
The chapter title comes from "Feels Like Home" by Chantal Kreviazuk. Legit one of the Spoby-est songs I've ever heard. I highly recommend it. Anyway, have a magical day, y'all. Thanks for reading!
but i'm alright, 'cause i have you here with me
In May, France goes through a torrent of unparalleled mood swings weather-wise. The final week of April leaves a cold and rainy mess behind, but the first week of May brings sunshine and warmer weather. Then, in the second week, temperatures drop to the low thirties and one day, it even snows. The third week, it's back to sunshine, pleasant breezes and high 60s; the final week, it's rainy everyday and it doesn't seem as though it wants to let up. The temperamental weather causes frustration amongst all the residents of the smoggy city, but most of all, it causes one tiny resident to fail in health.
One night, Grace wakes up crying and when Spencer goes to console her, she finds her daughter soaked in sweat, clammy and beet red. She has a fever of 102 degrees and complains about her throat hurting and her inability to breathe. Spencer never returns to bed; the rest of the night is spent at her daughter's bedside, medicating her and obsessively checking her temperature, pressing cold washcloths to her forehead and cheeks and providing her with tissues, as she well needs them. The next morning, they're both exhausted and though Grace insists upon going to school, neither of her parents relents. Spencer takes the day off, too, in order to care for her sick little girl.
Somewhere in the night, Grace had also picked up a cough. No one knows where it originated from, but Grace has a few theories. Still in her nightgown, Grace climbs onto the couch and crosses her arms miserably. "I hate Amelia Spaulding."
Spencer smirks in amusement, but scolds, "No you don't. You don't hate anyone."
"Yes I do. She got me sick," Grace informs her mother. "She was coughing and coughing and didn't cover her mouth and yesterday, she sneezed on me."
"That's disgusting," Toby comments, stirring some oatmeal. "Someone needs to teach this Amelia Spaulding some manners."
"And she got me sick," Grace points out, not willing to let it go. "It's true."
Spencer brings her the next dose of medicine and a glass of orange juice while Toby spoons some oatmeal into a bowl. Grace turns her nose up at all three. "I don't feel good."
"I know, baby," Spencer runs a hand through her daughter's straggly hair. "But this will make you feel all better."
"Nuh uh," Grace disagrees. "The medicine tastes yucky and oatmeal hurts my throat and I don't like orange juice anymore."
"Since when?" Toby snorts.
"Since forever," Grace says matter-of-factly. "I want to watch Frozen."
"Good luck," Toby tells his wife, snatching a kiss before pulling on a jacket. "I will be back later. I have some supplies I have to pick up."
"Mommy," Grace whines. "I wanna watch Frozen!"
"I heard you," Spencer says and barely has time to bid her husband farewell before he's out the door. "I want you to take your medicine and eat some breakfast."
Grace obliges, but when the medicine touches her tongue she makes the most over-exaggerated faces Spencer has ever seen. She knows the shit's gross, but if it works, so be it. Afterwards, Grace eats four or five spoonfuls of oatmeal while watching Frozen, takes one sip of her juice and then decides that her throat can't simply handle anything else. Except, of course, a Popsicle, which becomes her lunch. Spencer lets it slide. If being a good mother means forcing your child to eat real food when they can't stomach it, then Spencer's the worst they've seen and she's okay with it. Honestly, she's been in Grace's shoes before and she doesn't want her daughter to suffer any more than she has to.
She tries to get some work done from home, but it's extremely difficult to do when Grace is seeking comfort from her and there's an aloof snowman on the television singing about summer. Spencer gives up and cuddles Grace to her, feeling the heat from her fever radiate from every inch of her and wishing there was more she could do. They watch Frozen twice more before Toby comes home and are in the middle of their third run-through when he walks through the door. Thankfully, he's brought dinner home with him; take-out from Grace's favorite restaurant down the street. They eat in the living room, something they never do, and Grace would probably comment on it if she weren't feeling so awful. And yes, their dinnertime entertainment is a fourth viewing of Frozen.
That night, Grace wakes up again, a little after two a.m., in a severe coughing fit. She cries when it subsides, likely beyond exhausted, and it brings tears to Spencer's eyes. Seeing her daughter like this is dreadful; she can do nothing but wait it out, rub her back, cuddle her in tight. Spencer sits up with her most of the night, stroking her hair, singing songs to distract her and telling her stories. Miraculously, a little after five a.m. Grace falls into a restless slumber and Spencer's able to crawl back into her own bed. She, too, sleeps restlessly; her ears tuned to the smallest sniffle and cough in case her daughter would need her again.
The next morning, Spencer wakes up and feels like death. Of course her strict dedication to her ill child would lead to her contracting the virus as well, because no good deed goes unpunished. She can hear commotion in the living room, but she can't move from the bed. Her entire body hurts and when Toby comes into the room, he nearly balks at the sight of her. "Spence? Are you okay?"
"I feel like shit," She manages to utter and her voice sounds not only like nails on a chalkboard, but teeth and bones too. "Oh god…"
Toby doesn't even have to feel her forehead to know she's feverish. He disappears into the bathroom and returns with DayQuil. "Down the hatch. I'll start the countdown until I join you two in Sickville."
"If you're lucky like me," Spencer says, taking the medicine like a shot. "You only have a matter of hours."
Grace's sleep had been sporadic and sparse the night before, so to say she was cranky would be an understatement. When Spencer finds her on the couch, she's fidgeting and whining, not even placated by Anna and Elsa figure skating on the television screen before her. Spencer asks, "How are you feeling, Gracie?"
"Not good," Her lower lip trembles and her eyes grow watery. "My throat is all scratchy."
"Mine too," Spencer says, collapsing beside her. She's shaking and she's not sure if she's really cold or if she has the chills. Grace's breathing is labored and she can hear the mucus in her lungs. It breaks her heart. "Would it make you feel better if we watched Frozen again?"
The credits are rolling and the overtired tears are threatening to spill over her cheeks. She nods. Spencer's not surprised. When the credits end, she exits to the DVD menu and hits play all over again. Grace cuddles next to her and when Spencer glances over her shoulder, she can see Toby speaking hurriedly on the phone, but her brain is far too tired to work and make out what he's saying. When he approaches them, she asks, "What was that about?"
"That was me taking off work," Toby tells her. "I've got to take care of my sick girls."
She smiles gratefully and shivers a bit as he sits beside her. "Is it cold in here? Because I'm freezing."
Toby wraps an arm around her and kisses her temple. She's still a furnace. "No, it's not. Plus, you're wearing three shirts, two of which are mine."
"Yeah?" She cocks an eyebrow at him. "Well, you're not getting them back."
"I don't want them back," He maintains. "Especially now that they're covered in your germs."
Spencer smiles and when Grace realizes her father's joined them, she crawls across her mother's lap and into her father's. His free arm comes up to support her and she asks, "Daddy, who do you want to be? In Frozen?"
To his confused look, Spencer explains, "Yesterday we decided which character we'd be if we were in the movie. I chose Elsa, Grace chose Anna."
"I wanna be Anna because she gets Kristoff," Grace elaborates, sticking her thumb in her mouth and Toby laughs.
"Clearly I've done a great job of teaching her that women aren't defined by men," Spencer says sarcastically and Toby considers the question.
"Sven," He decides suddenly and his daughter shoots him a grin.
"Daddy," She states. "Sven's a reindeer!"
"I know," Toby smiles. "But I like him. He's pretty great."
It's probably the 6,000th time Spencer and Toby have watched Frozen with their daughter and therefore, they pretty much know the movie by heart. But the delightful thing about Grace is that even though she's seen it hundreds of times and can sing every word, she still laughs at all the jokes and gets sad at all the right parts and cheers at the end as though it were her very first viewing. So while her parents joke around her ("Do you want to build a snowman?" Toby asks and Spencer shakes her head viciously, responding, "No, anything but a snowman."), Grace pays them no mind and when the movie ends, Grace is still complacently perched in her father's lap. Comfy for the first time since she'd contracted the virus, she looks at peace and Toby would like to keep this going, even if it means honoring her next request.
"Can we watch it again?"
"Grace…" Spencer starts, her voice catching. There's exhaustion in her eyes and delirium in her every move.
"Please?" She pleads, coughing a bit. "Just one more time?"
"One more time," Toby repeats. "One. And then we're going to do literally anything else."
Grace settles against him once he's restarted, thumb in her mouth and Mickey Mouse clutched to her chest. Spencer rests against him as well, muttering, "This Frozen obsession is getting out of hand. She needs to learn to let it go."
Toby laughs. "Even hopped up on cold medicine, you still manage to make ridiculous puns."
Spencer smiles sleepily. "You just can't weaken my defenses, Toby."
"I think you mean offenses."
She yawns. "Yeah, those too."
Right as Hans and Anna are proclaiming that love truly is an open door (and Toby's wondering if Anna spent more time interacting with humans rather than portraits if she'd be able to tell when people are lying to her), Toby glances down to find Grace has completely conked out. Her thumb's dangling from her mouth, likely so she can breathe since she's so congested, and Mickey hangs limply from her grasp. She looks precious and perhaps a bit tragic, since he knows this is the first time she'd gotten actual sleep in the last two days. He leans down a bit and presses a kiss to the crown of her head, turning to draw Spencer's attention to their slumbering little girl.
However, when his eyes fall upon his wife, she's fast asleep too, her lips slightly parted, her eyes tightly shut. Her breathing isn't quite as labored as Grace's, but it's unfortunately getting there. Toby can almost hear the congestion creeping into her lungs and he wishes he could do something to take it away. He presses his lips to her forehead, which is still far too warm for his liking, and realizes, triumphantly, that he can finally turn this movie off. Except for one small detail- he can't turn this movie off. The remote is on the coffee table and if he so much as moves, one or both of his sleeping beauties is sure to wake up. Torn, Toby glances from the two ladies snuggled upon him to the two ladies singing onscreen and frowns. He refuses to deny Spencer and Grace the rest they deserve, even if it costs him his patience along the way.
Toby sits back against the couch, defeated, and watches Frozen for the 6,001st time. He wonders how many times it will take before he completely loses his mind.