The last time both Alex and Zeb had both been forced to rest at the same time was….well, neither of them could remember all of the specifics but it had been sometime during the middle of the galactic civil war. They had gone on separate missions and had come back with bruises, deep cuts, torn ligaments, a couple of broken fingers, and in Zeb's case, a badly dislocated shoulder that popping it back into place didn't help it fully. Medical had insisted both of them take a short leave in order to heal, Zeb protested because the Ghost crew had another mission literally two hours after the ship landed and Alex put his good foot down as he still needed to finish up paperwork for the mission he had been on plus the two prior ones he was still working on when he had been, in his own words, ripped away from his duties to do the latest one. In the end, however, it took several people with higher ranks than the two of them, plus those working the medical bay at the time, as well as Hera and Sabine giving both of them a good talking to before Zeb and Alex slunk to their on-base bunk for the next week and half to rest up. Neither one of them enjoyed it, especially as neither one could work on anything until they were cleared.
Now here both of them were at home on Lira San, feeling worse for wear, and there was little they could do about it until the symptoms lessened to where they could actually feel better. A number of colds, along with a few rounds of nausea, had swept their work places and the neighborhood where they lived so it had been only a matter of time before one or both of them got it too.
Alex had been the first to show, and feel, the symptoms. The day after he had returned from a weekend-long work related trip, he felt a twinge of a headache forming along with a general feeling of being tired and his body ached; he dismissed it as nothing more than him needing to rest up. He had gotten home late the night before, hadn't even unpacked nor taken a much needed shower yet, when he plopped down into bed sometime around two in the morning and felt Zeb snuggling next to him. He had started to feel the headache coming on and the body aches during the trip home but he chalked it up to him not getting much sleep during the weekend and pushing himself to get things done so he could get home to a bed that had his husband sleeping in it.
"I'm just tired, that's all, haven't had a proper day off in three weeks," Alex had grumbled later in the early afternoon when he had pulled himself out of bed to finally take that shower. Him saying he needed a day off from doing anything was what made Zeb suspicious, and he knew Alexsandr Kallus rarely took a day off from doing anything, even at home, and those suspicions were confirmed when Zeb took his mate's temperature after Alex had gotten out of the shower. Zeb, even after spending a good portion of his life traveling with humans, still did not fully understand the human body but even he knew that a human's body temperature wasn't supposed to be that high.
"You're going to the clinic and if I have to drag you there wrapped in a blanket -" Zeb didn't need to finish that sentence up, Alex knew that going to the general medical clinic was better than being sent to the hospital two towns away and, yet, he still didn't think he'd need a wellness check-up, even after he spent most of the early afternoon feeling worse and worse. But it was easier to just go and get it over with, especially since Zeb would drag him to the doctors anyways and had done so at least twice before since they had settled down.
By the time they had actually seen a doctor at the clinic, Alex had gone to the bathroom twice to throw up what little he had in his stomach and his headache had gotten worse; Zeb's worried expression didn't help him much, either. There wasn't much the doctor could do besides tell him to take some cold medicine and prescribe bed rest and soup for the next several days – and if the symptoms got extremely worse in the next several days, he'd need to come back in for another check. Zeb had been cautioned that since many of these colds, fevers, and bouts of nausea had already gone around, he'd need to be prepared to catch something as well and since his husband was now sick himself, he definitely would be the next one to catch a cold. And that the symptoms could very well present themselves as early as that night or even the next morning, considering how many sick Lasats both of them had been around in the last two weeks alone. With Alex being sick, and the two of them being in close quarters, it was very possible Zeb would be the next one to get sick, even if he – and to an extension, Alex – rarely got sick.
"Take some medicine, it'll help. And if Mr. Orrelios gets sick as well, he'll need to come in to be checked, just to be sure its a cold and not something more serious," the doctor had told both of them before shooing them out of the exam room and out of the clinic. Alex had a few grumps about taking medicine and it not working if he couldn't keep even water down but Zeb insisted they get something for the cold along with some extra food, and teas to help soothe the nausea, in case Zeb was the next one to get sick.
And sick he did become. The next morning, after tossing and turning for most of the night, Zeb got up as the sun was starting to rise, feeling as though he had been run down by a half dozen speeders. At first he chalked it up to not sleeping well the night before, as Alex had gotten up multiple times to use the bathroom and eventually had banished himself to the living room after the fifth round of coughs kept him from sleeping properly. Plus he hadn't gotten much sleep himself, having feeling the pangs of a headache start right above his eyes and his nose was clogged up as well; at least he wasn't throwing up any of the water or tea he had sipped over the course of the last few hours. Alex had been awake and under a blanket when he had come into the living room, looking worse than he had the day before, and had commented that Zeb was beginning to look like he was getting sick as well.
"I'm not going," Zeb said before Alex could even suggest going to the clinic, knowing that he sounded like a hypocrite about forcing him to go but not go himself.
"You are. You dragged me to the clinic yesterday, now it's my turn to drag you there." Coughing several times, Alex rubbed his head and groaned – if his head would stop hurting he'd feel a lot better and that would make this cold he had that much more bearable. "Even if it takes me all day to get you there. Didn't the doctor say to go in if you did get sick?"
"Yes," Zeb grumbled, more to himself than as a response to the question. "How are you going to get me there? You're in no condition to go anywhere but back to bed."
"I'll get Gron or Chava to take you," he said, turning around enough to give him a look, Zeb sighing, rubbing his forehead to help stave off any extra pains he had in his head. He wasn't about to expose Chava to another sick Lasat and a sick Human as well and he didn't know if Gron was able to postpone any of his own work duties to take an old friend to get checked out; he really didn't want to expose him to them either and had offered to take himself to get looked over. That started an argument that saw both of them coughing, grumbling, and a few more choice words thrown at the other in an attempt to push the issue. In the end, however, Alex did comm Gron to see if he was able to take Zeb to the clinic, just because he wanted to be a hundred percent sure Zeb went there and not just say he had.
When Zeb was brought home a few hours later, with Gron putting away extra food and cold medicine that he insisted that they stop for after getting out of the clinic for the second time in less than a day, he had gone to lay down in the bedroom to help get rid of the headache he now fully had and to take some of the medicine that Alex had on the nightstand on his side of the bed. Alex hadn't moved from the couch since Gron had come to take Zeb out, except to go to the bathroom and refill his tea cup, thanking Gron for taking Zeb as he left with a 'get better soon'. It wasn't until Zeb woke up several hours later and then plopped down on the couch next to Alex, with a box of tissues and a small trash can, did the pair look at each other.
Zeb's ears had lost their usual perkiness and had drooped down, he was also more slumped over than usual; his eyes weren't as bright as they normally were. At least his headache was gone already, with the medicine he had taken and the small nap that helped to get rid of it; Alex's own headache was almost gone, he'd just need to take a couple of small dose pain medicine and he'd be fine. Alex felt like he wanted to sleep for the next week to get rid of the ache he felt all over his body and Zeb looked like he felt the same way, with him tugging on the blanket to put over himself as well. While they both felt worse than they had since that morning, neither one of them needed to do anything but sit there, rest up, and get better – if they didn't feel any better in in the next few days then they'd go back to the clinic. Even if they had to drag themselves there.
"You look as awful as I feel," Zeb quipped with a small, teasing smile.
"You look worse," Alex retorted with a laugh, leaning his head on the back of the couch and stared up at the ceiling. "I guess the doctor told you the same thing he told me yesterday."
"Yeah. Lots of fluids, take medicine, rest up – and no going to work." He made sure to emphasize those last few words, his own coughs mingling with Alex as they sat there feeling worse than they had that morning.
"Already sent message to both our jobs saying we're not coming in for the next few days, we can't go in like this." Then he got a thoughtful look on his face. "Could work from home, though."
"You better not have suggested we do that," Zeb snapped, glaring at his husband. "Because we need to rest up and not work."
"As much as I wanted to, I don't think I can look at a computer screen long enough to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing." Coughing again, Alex looked over at Zeb. "How are we going to take care of each other if we're both sick?"
"Good," Zeb mumbled, then shrugged. "I guess we'll just have to make do with what we have. Gron did insist we get more than cans of soup and Chava will check on us tomorrow, to see if we're any better."
"Won't be, but it won't hurt us to get something to eat either." Alex closed his eyes for a moment, trying to will himself up but it was harder to do when Zeb leaned over and put his head close to his. "Don't want to get up to make anything."
"I don't either but neither one of us can afford to not eat right now." Grabbing a tissue and blowing his nose, Zeb glanced into the kitchen. "How about we try to eat a half of a sandwich and take some medicine before going to bed?"
"Sounds good to me."