"Hey, do you want to grab lunch." Sebastian popped his head into Joseph's office as he was working. He looked up to respond.
"Sure, did you have anything in mind?" He asked as he put his pen down and stood up.
"There is this great sushi place up the street." Castellanos leaned on the door frame raising his hand and thumbing the way out. He tiled his head to show that they should start walking.
"Because I'm half Japanese means that the only thing I like is sushi." Joseph said picking up his wallet and car keys from the desk drawer.
"Well, umm… yeah." Sebastian was embarrassed that he suggested something insensitive and placed his hand on the back of his head. "Is there a place that you like to go to?"
"Nope." Joseph walked passed Castellanos leaving him nervously standing in Joseph's office.
"Were you making fun of me?" Castellanos asked as Joseph looked back. Joseph just smiled. Castellanos like it when Joseph flirted with him, but he knew Joseph wouldn't tell he was flirting in the first place.
"Yup, I wanted to see your reaction." He laughed as they walked to the parking lot. "... if you could catch how politically incorrect you were." Joseph pushed the door open and held it for Castellanos to walk through. "We are taking my car." Castellanos followed saying nothing.
Joseph drove to the restaurant with the radio on the news to fill the silence of the car. Once they made their way to the restaurant, they were quickly seated.
"There is more paper work then case investigation." Castellanos sipped his water as he looked around the restaurant. "I want to get out there and crack some cases." He looked back at Joseph and noticed he was thinking about something else. "Earth to Joseph, are you listening?"
"Umm…" Joseph's dull eyes were brought back to life with a quick jolt. He looked at Castellanos. "Sorry what were you taking about?"
"Did you hear me?" Castellanos said leaning forward and propping himself up on the table's ledge. Castellanos gave him a concerned looked.
"Too much paper work, need for more cases and asked if I were listening to you." Joseph said picking his glass of water and sipping it without lifting his eyes to look back.
"God, I shouldn't have asked that question." Castellanos leaned back in his chair and shook his head. "You always listen." The reason Joseph's mind was somewhere else was he was still worried about Susy. She has been at home for the last two days with the flu. 'Worried' wasn't a strong enough word to describe Joseph's feelings. He wanted to be with her, but he has to work. He was thinking of getting Suzy something nice before he returned home. "Hey, Oda?" Castellanos waved his hand in front of Joseph's face. "Can we think outside your head?"
"Sorry, I was just think about Suzy." Joseph said.
"Are you worried about her?"
"Yeah." Joseph whispered and took a sip of his water again.
The waiter came over with their meals. Joseph started to eat first. "I got to say this food is great." He continued to eat and looked over at Sebastian who was having a difficult time eating using the chopsticks. "Do you want a fork?" Joseph asked as he picked one up from the little box in the center of the table. "Here."
"Thanks." Castellanos said taking the fork from Joseph's. Their hands touched. Joseph pulled away quickly as Castellanos slowly drew back. Joseph tried to apology, but was cut off by Castellanos: "How do you know how to use chopsticks?" Joseph sighed.
"My grandpa. He was a lot more Asian then the rest of my family. I thought I told you that before." Castellanos smiled was he stabbed the sushi roll with the fork. Joseph knew that the question was just a diversion from the grazing of hands. Joseph smirked, but it quickly changed.
"Are you okay?" Castellanos asked as he watched Joseph take his glasses off. He rested his glasses on the table and put his fingertips to his temples.
"I'm fine. Maybe a slight headache, but nothing I couldn't power through." He said looking up at Castellanos who through his eyes looked blurry. "I'm just tired." Joseph thought the headache was just from being worried about Suzy.
"Are you sure?" Castellanos said tiled his head with a worried look on his face.
"I'm sure." He said as he finished his lunch. It took Castellanos time to finish his as he ordered more then usual. Once they were finished, Joseph put his glasses back on.
As they were walked back to the car, Castellanos took Joseph's car keys, "I'm driving."
"Hey, It's my car. I think I should be the one driving it." Joseph said trying to get the keys back from Castellanos.
"You are acting strange just now. I think I should be the one driving." Castellanos said opening the car door. Joseph was pissed, but he gave into defeat. He sat in the passenger seat. Castellanos started the car. They drove a few blocks down the street in silence. "Are you angry at me?"
"No," He quickly said turning the radio on leaving it on the radio station with 80s and 90s music. He wasn't angry anymore with Castellanos, but didn't want to talk with him either.
When they got back to the office, there was a meeting. They stood in the back of the room as they tired to listen into what the Captain was saying. "What do you think this is about?" Joseph said whispering into Castellanos' ear. It was impossible to hear a clear word were they were standing, but by the mood of the room, it must have been positive. Joseph took his glasses off again.
"Are you okay?" Castellanos said looking over. He never like it when Joseph takes his glasses off. Castellanos began anxious as he was remind by the last time Joseph removed his glasses was when he was confession his inner demons. "If you don't feel well, go back to your office."
"I'm fin…" Joseph weakly said as Castellanos grabbed him by the arm. Castellanos noticed how warm Joseph's skin was as he guided him out of the room. "What are you doing?" Joseph protested as he tired pulled his arm away from Castellanos. "I can walk on my own you know."
"You need to take better care of yourself." Castellanos brought him to Joseph's office. "Just now you looked like you were going to faint. I don't want to called the ambulance- Joseph." He released his grip on Joseph arm. "Where do you keep your med kit?" Castellanos said looked through the unlocked cabinets and drawers.
"Seb, I'm fine." Joseph said as he sat down at his desk. Joseph placed his glasses down and rubbed his temple again. He tried took keep calm as Castellanos came back with the medical bag.
"No look at you. You are sweating and you never take your glasses off." Castellanos said looking up with a worried face raised a hand in protest. He stood there as Joseph looked away. He started opening the kit up to find the thermometer. "I think you caught Suzy's flu and you feel bad for leaving the other day." Castellanos said as Joseph gave his police partner a dirty look.
"I told you that I had a light headache. That is all." Joseph protested as Castellanos turned the thermometer on. "Castellanos, if I was sick, I wouldn't have come to work. I would be a home." Joseph said crossing his arms trying to looked angry. "I'm not going to be treated as a child."
"You're acting like one." Castellanos said.
"Fuck you." Joseph said.
"Yup you are sick."
"What?"
"When you start swearing like a truck driver, you are so sick you can't control the way you speak." Castellanos said as Joseph's jaw loosen. He was caught. Joseph spent all day tried to hid the fact that he was sick and was high on medication. Castellanos saw this an opportunity to placed the thermometer in his mouth.
"Fuk u." Joseph said trying to speak with it under his tongue. Castellanos looked away and to the med kit to clean up the mess he made. It went beep a few minutes later.
"100.4 F. You are official sick." Castellanos said cleaning up it up and putting it back in the bag.
"I'm not sick. I can still work."
"Could you write me your name on this?" Castellanos said handing him a pen and paper. Joseph snatched it and started writing. When Joseph was finished, the writing he produced was a scribbled mess. "Don't this tell you enough?"
"Fine." Joseph said standing up and almost falling over. Castellanos placed a hand on Joseph shoulders and pushing him back into the chair.
"You are not driving home."
"What. I got myself here just swell." Joseph said taking his car keys.
"Phone, Anna." Castellanos said in the commanding voice. "She can pick you up. You can't do anything." Joseph sat back down.
"Dam, I don't want to bother her at work." Joseph said pulling his personal phone. Castellanos gave him a dirty look. "Fine Fine."
Anna was called to pick Joseph up from the office. As Anna drove home, she looked over at Joseph who wasn't fairing to well. "How did you get so sick?"
"I think I got it from Suzy." Joseph said held his head in his hand and then he leaned his face against the cold glass window with his eyes closed. The cold was great relieve to his warm skin. "Are you going back to work?" He opened one of his eyes to look at Anna.
"I only had an hour left. They let me go." Anna said turning into the driveway. "How did you even get to the police office?"
"A lot of Advil." Joseph said.
"Did you take more then was recommend?"
"Yeah." Joseph said slowly getting out of the car.
"Joseph, you shouldn't be doing something like that. What happens if you passed out driving?" She said opening the door and guiding him in.
"I didn't." Joseph laughed.
"That wasn't a joke. Let's get you into bed." Anna's voice was filled with worry.
"Lucy? Oh there a note." Anna picked it up from the front entrance table. "Gone for a walk with Suzy." She laid it back down. Joseph walked up to the master bedroom and flopped onto the covers. "Joseph, you have to get into bed. That means getting under the blanket." She said helping him into bed and tucked him. She placed a kiss on his cheek.
"Get some rest. I'll get something 'non drug wise' to help your fever. We don't want you high again. Do we?" She stood in the doorway and looked back at Joseph. "Do you want anything to eat or drink?"
"Some nice tea with lemon." Joseph whispered. Anna quickly left the room. The drugs were wearing off and he could feel every joint in his body ache. "Christ. I should have stayed at home." he said rubbing his shoulder. A few minutes later, Anna came back with a face cloth, a tub of cold water, vaper rub, and a water bottle. She placed them all on the night stand next to the pile of books.
"How are you feeling now?" She sat on the edge of the bed pushing his hair out of his eyes. Anna playful took her husband's glasses off and placed them on the night table on top of a books.
"Shitty." Joseph said smirking. Anna laughed as she dipped the face cloth into the tub of water. She rung it out and dabbed Joseph's face with it. Once she placed the cloth back in the tub again, she rung it out and she laid it on his forehead.
"You shouldn't have gone to work if you felt like this." Anna said dried her hand and placed one of them on the side of Joseph's face. She continued by unbuttoned the top part of Joseph's collared shirt. She opened the vaper rub and rubbed the medication on his chest. "I hope you feel better later." She placed another kiss over his eye as she did Joseph closed that eye.
"I'll try-Thanks- Annabel," Joseph tried to grab at every word, but he was so tried. They came out as whispers as he slowly closing his eyes. Anna left the room and closed the door.
Lucy and Suzy walked into the house. "Mrs. Oda?" Lucy called out.
"In the kitchen," Anna called out.
"You are home early."
"I got a phone call from Joseph that he wasn't feeling well." Anna said turning the kettle off.
"He's not feeling well." Suzy asked still a little sick.
"Shhh… yes. Your daddy isn't feeling well." Anna addressed Suzy.
"Can I see him?" Susy asked taking her mom's hand and pulling.
"Sure, just be quiet." Anna nodded as Suzy released her hand and ran upstairs to the master bedroom.
"I think he got Suzy's flu." Anna said pouring the water in the cups as she spoke to Lucy. "Take one. I make enough."
"Thank you kindly." Lucy took one of them and blew on it. The steam rising up into her face which fogged her glasses.
Suzy pushed the door of the room and saw her dad was laying in bed. She quietly tiptoed into the room.
"Susanna?" He called out.
"Daddy," She whispered and walked over to the side of bed. "Mommy said that you didn't feel well." Joseph face was pale, but he tried his best to reach out to tell her that he was fine.
"With a little rest, I'll be fine in no time. I'll be down for dinner." Joseph said as she took his hand and squeeze it. He did the same. She nodded pulling away from him and running back to her mom.
-Side note- Thanks for supporting "Roses for Him." Hope to keep on posting.