Alright, so the finish by it's one year anniversary didn't happen. Oh well. I'm still working on it though, and I still appreciate what you have to say. So, thank you. :)

Please let me know what you think. Enjoy!

I packed my bag and was ready when he knocked on my door the next morning. Decked in a winter jacket and a hat, I couldn't help but laugh. We weren't in even the cold weather yet, but he was prepared. I took the hat off his head, slipping it on mine, announcing my goodbyes to my parents until the weekend was over. We headed to my car and piled our things in, preparing for a weekend getaway that no one could ruin.

The drive to Colorado was not as bad as I thought it would be. We dropped Rydel off at Ellington's along the way and then made our way to the mountains where his parents had a cabin they used from time to time. It was situated quite far out of town and not many people would bother us. Unfortunately for our little plan, we did have to travel twice a day back into town where Rydel was so that she could perform the therapy. I knew he still wouldn't let me learn, so I didn't fight it. I just wanted him healthy. Besides, we were still an hour or so away from town, and that was plenty of space for own our fun.

This hopefully included sex. I sounded like my ex best friend, but I couldn't help it. I had packed condoms that morning and knew that being alone, no one would interrupt us. His father couldn't barge in, his mother couldn't ask us if we wanted dinner, and Rydel was probably topless herself somewhere in their hometown. I was ready.

We spent the afternoon out in the woods, building snowmen and other winter activities. I didn't have this kind of chance often to see what it was actually like to have a winter, so it was all new to me. I chased him around, tossing snow down his jacket, making him squeal, and he did the same to me. By the time we went back inside, we were both freezing and in the serious need of hot chocolate.

It was mid evening at this point and I turned on the stove, looking in the freezer to find frozen pizza. Perfect. Junk food and a hot guy. I wasn't about to complain. Riker worked on setting up the fire as I tried to find plates in the house, laughing as he turned on the radio and set it up to a bunch of sweet songs. He found blankets and bundled them so that we could cuddle as we ate our pizza and drank our hot chocolate.

The even progressed well and I smiled as I leaned on him, kissing his cheek.

I then noticed that he didn't look well and tried not to drop my drink on him.

"What's wrong?" I asked, immediately turning to face him. "I thought you said you'd be good until the morning."

"It's not that," he said, his voice tight. "I might have forgotten one of my medications. An important one."

I closed my eyes, not sure what I should do. I looked at my phone, near the counter and thought about getting up. He made the choice for me, grabbing my arm, shaking his head. "No. If you call Rydel, she's going to call my parents and send me home. I'll be fine. It'll pass."

It didn't pass. He began to cough an hour or so in, his body shaking each time and sending him into the bathroom. I was freaking out, ready to secretly dial Rydel and beg for her to come out here. But I couldn't do that until I knew there was no other way since Riker wouldn't forgive me for it otherwise. I also didn't want to run the risk of hurting him further.

I knocked on the door to find him gagging over the toilet. He shook and I immediately knew that we shouldn't have skipped the therapy that night either, despite his claims. He coughed harshly into his hands. He leaned heavily on the counter suddenly, like he was about to collapse and I rushed over, having enough.

"Riker," I said quietly, as he balanced on me. "I won't call your parents, but we have to get you to a hospital. You're not well."

He looked downright miserable as I said this.

"I know, I'm sorry, but your parents will never forgive me. I'll never forgive myself."

I quickly got him dressed more appropriately and myself, getting us onto the road in less than ten minutes. Who knew missing one inhaler could do so much damage?

He was having trouble breathing further as we pulled up, and that granted us the immediate spot in the ER. What could have been a disaster was easily avoided with an extra prescription called in, and a few minutes on a breathing machine. He refused to have one of their nurses perform his therapy, but his levels were back up enough that they didn't enforce it. With a strict 'don't forget your medications' lecture, we were back on the road and to the cabin within two hours.

I texted Rydel once Riker fell asleep, alerting her to the crazy night I'd had. I assured her everything was fine and not to tell their parents. I had everything under control; we'd handled it. I was quite proud of myself, actually. I held it together for what could have been a disaster. I wanted her to know that. I finally convinced her of this and soon fell asleep next to him, my hopes from earlier in that day gone, but still happy with our day.

Besides, we still had one more night.

I woke up before him the next morning, turning over so I could reassure myself he was still there and nothing had happened overnight. His chest rose up and down, slowly, reassuring me that he was okay. I smiled to myself, rolling back over so I could lay toward the window. It was snowing, not heavily, but enough that it was laying a tiny dust on the ceil outside.

I crawled out of bed then, freezing my butt off. I definitely wasn't used to waking up in a cold house. "Jeez," I muttered, searching for the clothes I discarded earlier in the morning. I threw them on, heading into the kitchen to see what I could make for breakfast. I knew we had to head into the city to see Rydel in a little bit, but I wanted to make something good for us both before then. Unfortunately, the only thing I could find were dry goods and frozen items. I ended up making a boring breakfast when I wanted more.

I soon walked back into the bedroom, shaking his shoulder gently. Riker swatted at me and I bit back a giggle, shaking him again so that this time he woke. He groaned in bed, rolling against the wall, "Five more minutes."

"I'm not your mom," I teased and then he flipped back around, looking at me with sleep filled eyes.

"Oh yeah," he murmured softly.

He sat up and scratched his head. "Morning," I teased again. "How are you feeling?"

He shrugged, "Alright."

I didn't like that answer, but I chose to ignore it, dragging him out of bed and into the kitchen where the food was situated. It wasn't exactly the best breakfast, but it would fill him up enough that he wouldn't need to eat for a while. "We forgot your shakes so I had to try and find food," I reminded him. "Next time we do something like this, we're so making a list."

He yawned, nodding his head. "Big oops' are not okay."

"Yeah," I agreed, sitting down next to him. "Definitely not."

We headed into town about an hour later, meeting up with Rydel in Ellington's house. Riker spent about an half hour with her, and I got to know her boyfriend better, which was pretty much just him bragging about how much he loved her and wished she was closer. That made me happy, and I hoped that the two of them would last until they could be together again. He seemed so happy with her, proud to call her his.

"We're ready to go!" Riker announced sometime later, coming back into the kitchen with Rydel. Her cheeks immediately went red upon seeing me with her boyfriend.

"Alright." I stood, gathering our things. "Nice seeing you again, Ellington."

"You too," he called.

We exited the house and got into my car, and I turned to face Riker. "He loves her so much. That makes me so happy."

He nodded. "Me too. It's about time she does something for herself."

"Did she really never hang out with anyone else before this?"

"They probably would have been together had she ever left the house when we lived here. She didn't. She was too concerned with me." He paused, looking to me. "But now I've got you and I think that makes her feel like she doesn't have to be with me all the time, so she went and did something on her own."

"I'm the reason for this?" I asked in disbelief. "Wouldn't have thought."

"You've made more than one person happy."

I smiled, shaking my head. We headed back toward the mountains.

By the time we got back to the cabin (we stopped at the grocery store for real food), it was almost afternoon. I also had planned for an afternoon of laziness, knowing that the cold was not something either of us particularly enjoyed too much. It made it harder for him to breathe, and I was just not a fan of freezing my butt off… literally.

I ushered him into the house, looking into the bags to see the various items to make homemade chicken soup. He was handed the movies we'd bought for cheap and the various snack foods and pushed out of the kitchen momentarily. I quickly went to work, trying to go off memory of my mom's soup, and piled the ingredients into the bowl. From there, I set it on the stove to simmer and moved onto making myself look ready for our evening. As much as it was a lazy evening, I knew both of us were starting to wonder about the sex thing, and I needed to have hot underwear on in case it did happen.

I came back into the living room a few minutes later (tank top and shorts on because the heat was on high) to find a pile of blankets and more junk food than I could count. He motioned to the TV and I went through our small stockpile, picking out a comedy that seemed like the best bet. I put the movie in and then climbed into the makeshift bed, cuddling against him as we began to snack on the food.

"Thank you," he said quietly during the movie.

I looked up at him, not sure why he was saying it. "Why?"

"For not calling my parents last night," he said. "I know you talked to Rydel."

"What?" I groaned, shaking my head. "She said she wasn't going to say anything!"

"She didn't," he promised. "But she said that you contacted her. It's fine, I'm not mad. I'm just thankful for someone who didn't go right above me like my parents do. They don't listen to a word I say, immediately assume they know what's going on better than I do. We were in and out of the hospital last night and everything was fine. Rydel knows this, but my father is always so convinced everything is a huge issue and he usually makes it worse."

I didn't know what to say, so I just leaned on him. "I'm just glad it wasn't a big issue."

"I would tell you," he promised again. "You'd know."

That made me shudder. I didn't want to know. "Well, let me go check on dinner and then we can go back to forming a permanent mold on this couch."

He laughed, swatting me. Soon, we were seated back at the couch with hot bowls of soup in our hands, warm biscuits and a small bowl of salad to go with it. I had also made homemade iced tea for our dinner, and was quite proud of how homey I could be. I'd make a good wife one day, much like my mother told me as a little girl. I stole a glance at my boyfriend as he enjoyed the food. Would I be his wife? I hoped so.

"This is fantastic," he groaned happily, stuffing his face with the crumbs. "That's it. We've moving in here."

I laughed, shaking my head. "No thanks. I don't think I can do much of the cold."

He smiled, "You'd get used to it. It's weird having it warm all year around."

I shrugged. "Well, what's for dessert? I forgot to pick something up."

He eyed me carefully, "Do we need actual dessert… I always thought there were other ways for things like that."

And there we were. I felt my cheeks burn at this, setting aside my bowl to look at him. He raised his eyebrows and I squirmed, hiding my face into my sleeve. I felt a nudge and then I was being pulled up. Sometime later, the cold air didn't matter. We were making plenty of heat ourselves underneath the sheets.