A/N: Different kind of hurting. Nobody likes strep throat.
The pain was woke her. The singer clutched at what felt like a freight train driving through her head, groaning. Curling into a ball, she wriggled slowly under the blankets and into darkness once more, red-hot pain throbbing behind her tightly shut eyes and at her temples. She vaguely felt a pair of cool hands turn her over slowly and feel her forehead before she drifted off again. After what seemed like a very short amount of time, she was shaken awake.
"Tori. Tori!" Jade's voice was anxiety-stricken and urgent as she tried to rouse her girlfriend. After seeing that the singer's temperature was 104, the paler girl tried desperately to wake her. In response, the half-Latina squinted up at her girlfriend and opened her mouth to speak, only to gasp as fire erupted in her throat and she let go of her head, clutching at her throat. Jade reacted quickly, gently supporting her to sit up and bundling her up in a hoodie and slipping on socks, hauling her up in her arms and rushing her to the garage to take her to the hospital.
"It's just strep throat. Nothing to worry about." The doctor in the ER smiled reassuringly. "I'm sure you gave your girlfriend quite a scare this morning, dear." He chuckled as he wrote out a prescription. "I'm just going to give you a course of antibiotics to take care of the infection, and that should be okay. For the fever, you should take some Tylenol." He ripped off the sheet and handed it to Jade. "You two take care now." Giving them one last smile, he stepped out of the room. Tori blinked slowly; the fever left her feeling groggy and dazed, and the whole meeting with the doctor had passed her by in a blur. She followed Jade to the car, and promptly drifted off again.
When she woke again, she felt a cool towel resting on her forehead, and the soothing feeling of Jade running her fingers repeatedly through her hair. The TV flickered silently in the living room, and Tori snuggled down and drifted off again.
Blinking slowly as she opened her eyes, the singer woke once more, noticing her surroundings were different. Jade had carried her back into their bedroom, and had fallen asleep sitting up, Tori's head in her lap. Stretching her legs out a little, the singer shifted her head away so the other girl could sleep lying down, but the raven-haired girl's eyes snapped open.
"Tori?" Emerald eyes dark with sleep flitted around the room, alarmed. Gently, Tori laced their fingers together and patted the bed, indicating Jade should lie down. Relief spread across Jade's face, and she pleated a soft kiss on the singer's forehead. Leaning over, Jade checked the time. "We should get some soup or something in you..." She murmured, laying a hand over the singer's forehead. "Your fever doesn't seem as bad. You wanna take your temperature and I'll make you some chicken noodle?" Tori nodded, as Jade handed her the thermometer. "I'll be in the kitchen if you need me." With that, Jade padded out of the bedroom.
After a bowl of soup and countless glasses of water, the singer finally was allowed to cuddle up next to Jade on the couch with a bottle of Gatorade.
"C'mon, babe. You have to replace the fluids your body got rid of." Jade reasoned, as she pushed the blue liquid towards her. Frowning, Tori took a sip, then sighed and buried her head in Jade's neck. "I know, I know. It's rough. I got you, babe. You'll feel a lot better soon. Promise." Cool hands rubbed her back and arms wrapped around her, the comfort lulling Tori back to sleep.