"Paul, come on, mate. Go and sleep in your own bed or maybe we could move her up there to be more comfortable, you know." a voice comments into the darkness that is my mind. No that can't be.
"It's alright, son. My kip is over-thanks though-and she seems to be just fine. I reckon she'll be up soon, or I hope so anyways." another voice, a different one that I make out to be Paul's responds as I seem to be drifting in and out of sleep, or consciousness maybe too.
I shift my legs and shake my head to rid it out of this heavy cloud that is over it and I open my eyes to see the fire dying away and I pull the blankets down. They've done their job most definitely because now I'm too warm.
"Oh, hey, darling. I see that you're awake. How are you feeling now that you had two hours of rest?" Paul's voice speaks to me, one that doesn't sound so tired as it was the last time I heard it. I yawn and rub my eyes as his face clears up in front of me; still sitting at the end of the couch.
"I'm okay, I guess, but really warm." I mumble with my voice masked with the not yet dead sleep and I feel his hands set my feet on a pillow as I hear his movements.
I watch him move over to sit on the edge of the wide sofa next to my side and his not yet awake eyes catch mine and his tousled hair that I doubt he would ever purposely let get so disarrayed and he moves his smooth wrist to touch my forehead, "Woah, you are really warm. Dammit, I think you're running a fever now. Let me go get the thermometer. I'll be right back, darling." he comments and his cool wrist leaves my clammy forehead and I watch him get up and leave for the kitchen and he returns with a glass thermometer.
"Open up," he tells me and he sticks it in my mouth and I place my lips back around it. "Alright, we'll just let that sit for a few minutes."
He brushes his hand over my forehead where I feel hairs stuck to my sweaty skin and one corner of his straight mouth turns up into not quite a smile and he surprisingly leans forward to plant a soft peck on my forehead and I give him a small smile when I see his eyes again, "Are you hungry or thirsty for anything?" he questions and I laugh since I can't really speak with this in my mouth and he takes it from my mouth and I see his arched eyebrows shoot up.
"Yeah, your temperature is one hundred, and that's not good. Not good at all. I'll go get a cloth wet with cold water to try and help bring it down." he remarks before leaving with the glass thing held in his hands and I look to the attractive flames that slowly move back and forth.
I hear his soft footfall signaling his return and I look back to him when the feeling of ice touches my forehead. Am I really running that bad of a fever or is it just the water? He runs it across my fiery skin and then leaves it there to sit and he glances down to my ankle.
"Is it still the size of a squash?" I joke with him and I feel him prod at it gently and move a bag on it that is blue, no longer that white bag of frozen peas that was doing its duty there before.
"Nah, it's not that huge anymore," his effortless laugh disrupts his words when I scoff at him. "But it's still swollen, it is going down though, so don't worry. You still shouldn't be on it anytime soon." he notes while looking at it as I watch and he pulls down blue fabric over it, pants of his probably.
He sighs and scooches back over to me and I nearly lose myself in his eyes once again, ah those deep caramels at so exquisite, "So you said that I shouldn't be on it, but what about that pottery class? Did we already miss the starting of it?" I ask him and I see him purse his lips adorably and he glances down to his wrist where he moves the gray cuff of his button-down to look at his watch that looks almost ancient to me.
"You're right 'cause it started around a half hour ago, but it's okay," his eyes leave the two hands to flit back to me and his hand moves the cloth on my forehead slightly. "Don't let it get to you, though. We won't be able to make it tonight with you being...how you are. I'm sure I can convince who over is the head of everything there to let us in one of these days to finish up our things."
"Because they can't say no to a Beatle, am I right?" I ask with a playful smile and I see one graze his lips and his hand falls to my cheek to sit there while his thumb brushes across my cheek.
"Aren't you always right?"
"No, I think that's more like you." I joke and he giggles softly and I look at his button-down that is tucked in places but is for the most part hanging over his dark jeans.
"Now that you can speak do you want something to eat or a glass of something?" he repeats a previous question and I nod with a smile and tell him a glass of chocolate milk would be nice.
"Are you okay to sit up?" he asks as he sets the tall glass full of the brown milk on the sitting table and I pull myself up to sit up against the pillow that separates the arm of the couch from my back.
"Yeah. I'm fine, Paul. Ah, you're such a worrier." I remark and I reach over for the glass to drink from that hits my dry throat and the thirst soon vanishes, after I downed half of the sweet milk as he watches me.
"Well you've had a rough past two days. Rough is an understatement, you could say." he notes with a serious look playing on his looks and I realize that what I said was a bit touchy with him.
I set it down on the sitting table and I notice his eyes watching me and he flashes me a warm smile before looking away to out the window where it still rains out. I don't know if I could ever stand it raining so often if this is where I lived, but it is where I do now, so I might as well get used to it, right?
"I didn't skip town on you, Paul. I uh stayed with a friend." I announce and he looks away from the rain streamed window back to me with a puzzled look dawning on his face as he leans forward a bit with his hands folded.
"What friend is this?"
"Her name is Izzy Herron and she lives about fifteen minutes away. She's incredibly nice and just a great person in all." I answer as he looks confused beyond belief and I shift my ankle that in a way feels numb to me and I take a deep breath that I really shouldn't have and I realize that when I feel the pain in my ribs from it.
"I don't remember being with you when you met an Izzy."
"I met her at the restaurant last night." I explain and I wince at the pain for a second as Paul looks elsewhere and I admit I'm glad that he didn't notice, because he is worrying about me a lot. Would it sound bad if I admitted to liking it?
"Oh. Well, I'm glad that you had a place to stay then..," I watch him trail off while he appears to be deep in thought or almost lost in his words. "But you don't need to worry about a place to stay 'cause you're still more than welcome here."
I nod when he looks to me and we share small smiles before he breaks the eye contact and then moves the ice pack on my ankle and I slouch in the couch to lay back down while he still occupies the end, "Did you have to work today?" I ask after a minute, in an effort to make small talk since now the silence seems awkward between us.
"No, I didn't actually. I had the day off, along with the other lads, but we won't be getting another day off soon which is a drag." he remarks and he moves over to sit on the sofa's edge again to place the cloth back on my head that had fallen. I look up at him as his face is serious as well as placid and he dips down to plant a warm smooch on my cheek and then he moves my hair out of the way after as we stare at each other.
"Paul, do you think we could give another try with this dating thing?"
"I reckon we could, so yeah let's do it. But no skipping out on each other or having petty fights, yeah? I don't want to worry about losing you, Court." he concludes and a smile splits on my lips and one on his too as his heated hand rests on my left cheek.
"Are you comfortable, love?"
"No, I wanna sit up again." I answer and he gives me a nod before he helps poor old me up into a sitting position with my foot resting on the sitting table and almost to my surprise he swings an arm around me.
"You know, your clothes are really warm and cozy, even thought they're pretty lose on me." I note as I touch the smooth fabric of the button-down of his that I wear as I'm now not surrounded by blankets entirely.
"Oh, so does that mean you aren't going to yell at me for changing you into my clothes?"
He chuckles heartily and I glance up to see his patient eyes directed to me and I snicker, "I guess not, but that still was a risky move you took because that is not a first or second date thing."
"What was I supposed to do, Court? You would've gotten hypothermia if I hadn't gotten you out of your wet clothes and into my dry ones." he notes and I purse my lips while thinking and staring at the fire and I glance back up to him.
"Yeah, you have a good point there. Thanks for saving me."
"Oh, so now you consider me a hero, is that right?" he questions with a grin that leaks of pride and I nod my head before laying it on his shoulder and I hear him exhale a relived sigh.
"Mmhmm. You did save me after all, and you kind of always have been my hero." I confess to him.
"Is that so?" he asks with raised eyebrows and a cheeky grin that he doesn't attempt to hide and I laugh before he silences my lips with a soft kiss that I appreciate and return to him.
I sigh afterwards and nuzzle my head into his shoulder, "Please don't ever leave or run away from me again." he speaks softly as my fingers poke at the open buttons of his wrinkled shirt.
"I won't, as long as you're okay with that going for you too." I remark and I look up to face his eyes and he winks at me which makes me feel all bubbly inside.
"I'm not going to make any promises because I don't like those things, but I won't, Court." he tells me and his hand grazes my cheek and I smile briefly before letting my head fall to his broad shoulder to rest there as I stare into the fireplace where the flames dance before my tire stricken eyes. Does this mean I can call everything okay then?
AN: Thoughts? Like it? Love it? Don't like it?